Zero no Tsukaima The Holy Knights
by Drew CH
Summary: Prequel to Darkness Rising. After a devastating ordeal he wakes up in a strange world. Now Seth is on his first mission, to take down the Prism, and get his revenge. I recommend reaading Darkness Rising first.
1. Chapter 1

The end of the World as we know it

The world went exactly the way it does every day alarm goes off at 7:00 a.m. Get up and take a shower and get ready for school. Take too long in the shower and run to school. Arrive at school one minute late, get reprimanded in front of the entire class about never being on time and having no drive to succeed. Take seat and let the day drag on until the final bell, the world of a sixteen year old is not what people fantasize it to be...... Only one person seems to even care, his brother but Derek was generally busy with his wife, baby, and job. The bell rang but he didn't leave until everyone had, it didn't matter none of his classmates cared, the teacher's constantly reprimanding made sure he seemed like a real loser.

Seth pulls on his coat and picks up his backpack, "I guess I'll go home......" The idea of returning to a house that was more empty than a deflated balloon didn't appeal to him, but what can a sixteen year old do in such a small town with no friends. He exits the school and notices two boys going through the motions of what would seem to be a fight. Before he can turn back around one of the bigger boys notices him.

"HEY SPAZ!"

Seth doesn't answer back, people like that are just a waste of time and though he had plenty of it, he didn't want to spend it on them. He starts walking away when something large and gagged slams into the back of his skull and makes him fall to a knee. As Seth touches the spot that is screaming in pain he hears the boys all hooping and hollering......cheering for some idiot that had just hit someone else in the head with a large sharp rock. Seth looks at his hand, blood.......The man who threw the rock starts mocking Seth further.

"What's wrong did that hurt, I though sticks and stone couldn't hurt people." He lets out an obnoxious laugh and Seth gets back up and continues to walk away, "Hey where you going!?"

The four boys chase after him and quickly surround him like a shark shoving him from person to person all mocking him. Just as Seth is getting ready to retaliate he is punched in between the shoulder blades and falls forward into another. The teen shoves Seth off him and strikes Seth in the face with a right cross. Seth takes in a deep breath and kicks the man in front of him in the crotch and elbows the one behind him in the face. The other two grab hold of his arms. Seth head buts the man holding his right arm and the puts the fourth in a headlock and begins to punch him in the back of the head until he lets him go and he falls on his face. Seth looks over his handy work and finds this situation to open for interpretation so he runs the rest of the way home.

He puts his key in the door but silently chuckles, "It is never locked...." He grabs hold of the doorknob and sure enough, the door opens and he walks in, "Mom I'm home........Mom......" Seth turns a corner into the kitchen and stops in his tracks, a body is slumped over in a chair and the upper body draped across the table. "Too much to drink again huh?.......Seth grabs her by the shoulders and pulls her back so that she isn't breathing, "Mom, MOM, MOM!!!!" Seth starts shaking her but no reaction just dead weight. He quickly backs up so that he is against the wall, "Mom........" He slides down and hugs his legs to his chest and starts to shake as the tears start falling down his face.

Something shakes the room like an earthquake tremor Seth looks up and there is a bright green thing in his kitchen. He gets up and touches it and the feeling seems to make his pain go away, it seemed like a loved one's embrace....like it was a long lost friend. Seth touches it again but this time a wind blows him and his backpack into it.

Darkness nothing but darkness, "Hello!? Is anyone there? Hello?!"

The sound of a woman talking makes Seth turn around and when he does the darkness fades away but now he is high above what looks like a small town. Seth lets out a loud freaked out scream as he plummets.

A group of people are standing around a teenage girl who is standing with a wand held high above her head. Whispers begin to arise among some of the people making the girl immediately regret even trying a summoning spell. One of the older people point to the sky as Seth backpack lands a few feet from the girl followed by Seth falling through a house.

"Ow........" Seth sits up and suddenly realizes that he isn't dead and finds that to be not only interesting but the best new he's had all day, "How could I have survived that?"

The door to the house is opened slowly and an old man with a pitch fork enters leaving the door open. The man says something but Seth doesn't understand, "I don't understand you, what language is this?" The man thrusts his pitch fork at Seth and he quickly stands up and from what he can gather he just crashed through this old man's roof. With another thrust Seth puts up his hands like he is being arrested, "I don't know what you want!" The man quickly gets behind Seth and literally kicks him out of his house. Seth stumbles out into the light and notices that a group of people have congregated around the home, "I'm sorry I'll pay for it."

A girl pushes her way to the front of the crowd, she looks at Seth with a confused look and says something that Seth still doesn't understand but she seems to be very annoyed with his presence. Seth reaches into his wallet and pulls out his id card and hands it to the girl. She looks at it and looks at him with an even further annoyed look on her face. Another one of the people in the crowd a guy says something and the girl blushes and yells at him. The guy says something else and shrugs and begins to chuckle.

The girl takes a breath and steps toward Seth who still has his hands up like he's been arrested. She says something and then takes Seth's left hand and hesitates at doing something else. The guy says something that but the look of it was a taunt of some sort. The girl looks back and yells again this time making the boy cringe, she turns back to Seth and takes a calming breath. In a quick motion she pushes he lips against his and Seth is at first very surprised but quickly puts his hands down and relaxes. The girl steps back and says something else that an uncaring Seth doesn't understand. Suddenly it feels like someone put a flame up against his skin. Seth falls to the ground and grabs at his upper left arm and begins to shout out curses at the girl and all the people trying to figure out what happened. The pain continues until a bright light flashes from under his shirt sleeve. After the flash the pain slowly begins to die but now comes two questions, where is he and what just happened?

Seth stands back up and the girl points her wand at him and starts to speak again but this time something strange happens. As she continues to speak her words start becoming clear until he understands everything that she is saying.

"With this magic I command that you understand what I am saying and in turn you know our language." Seth looks at the girl for the first time, long dark brown hair, blue eyes.....a beautiful face and body, "Hey can you understand me?"

Seth looks at her and then everyone else and the man that was apparently taunting her before, "Yes........"

"Who are you and how did you get here? Are you a human? Are you a commoner pulling some stupid trick?"

Seth waves his hands in front of her face to make her stop talking, "You need to slow down I don't even know you're name."

She blushes a little, "Oh well, my name is Rain, who are you?"

"My name is Seth, and I am lost....." His answer seems to make the people around him very curious. "I was in my kitchen, then this bright light was there and then I fell and I some how lived, I don't understand what is going on."

The boy laughs from behind Rain, "So Rain, how'd you stage that huh, or did you really just summon a commoner. You are a commoner right."

"I guess I am, what defines a commoner?"

The boy points what looks like a magic wand from old final fantasy video games at a rock and it levitates and then turns into a different material, "Can you do that?"

"Who are you people, what the heck was that of course I can't do that who would be able to do that?"

The teen starts laughing even harder, "This is perfect, Rain you summoned a know-nothing commoner, you couldn't even summon someone who could use magic, at least that would have been a redeeming quality since he is a human and all."

The girl, Rain blushes and tears start forming in her eyes.

Seth walks over to the man and shoves him, "Hey why don't you leave her alone alright, what is your problem anyway. Usually I just avoid people like you but I can tell that I don't like you." The teen points his wand at Seth and suddenly like someone punched him a pain swells up from his stomach and he falls to his knees.

Rain rushes over and stands between them, "Brother stop it!"

The teen looks down at Seth and smirks, "This commoner needs to apologize to me first."

Seth slowly gets back up and steps around Rain, "Apologize for what, sticking up for your sister, why don't you stop acting like such an ass." Rain takes in a surprised breath and looks at her brother.

He swipes his wand at Seth some unseen force blasts him backwards . This time he doesn't fall. The brother looks impressed but points the wand at him and a ring of fire forms around the end of the staff. This makes Seth realize the trouble he has gotten himself into. The ring closes into a ball of fire and it flies at Seth. The ball of flame slams into Seth and catches his over shirt on fire. In a frantic motion Seth pulls his shirt off his body and stomps it out. He looks back at the teen and another ball of fire has formed at the end of his wand. Seth's arm begins to glow.

"You might as well just apologize, next time it won't just be your shirt." The fireball flies towards Seth this time he dives out of the way and the fire just slams into the ground. Seth stands back up and puts up his hands like a boxer. The stance makes Rain's brother smile and he forms an even larger fire ball around his around.

Just as the fireball is launched Rain steps between the two again, "Stop this is....!"

Seth quickly runs in front of her and shields her as best he can taking the full brunt of the fireball. As the fire fades he looks down at Rain, "You......okay?"

She nods and he falls to his knees, "Cloud stop it!"

Her brother shrugs and walks away and soon enough the rest of the crowd leaves.

"What where you thinking, you can't fight a mage if you have no magical powers you are lucky he is so back at fire magic, you could have died." Seth finds that she is placing the blame on him to be very annoying. "If you are indeed my familiar then you must listen to what I say, so next time I tell you to not fight someone or apologize you are going to....understand?" Seth doesn't nod he just finds this whole situation to fake to be real. She touches the back of his head where the stone had hit him earlier and Seth cringes.

"Ow...."

"Are you okay?"

Seth nodes and looks back up at her, "Yea I'm sure that I'm gonna wake up soon enough anyway and I won't be burned, I won't be bleeding from a rock wound, and my mom won't be dead from drinking to much alcohol." Seth feels dizzy and falls forward and bumps into Rain before falls to the ground, unconscious.

Looks at his left arm, strange markings begin to to appear.

"What is this?"


	2. Chapter 2

Not a Dream

Seth opens his eyes and pain flows through his entire body, "Ouch......what a crazy dream."

He sits up and looks down at his hands but what is below his hands he finds to be much more interesting.

_'These aren't my blankets, Mom must've changed them before I got home, I don't know why she would.'_

His eyes grow large and his pulse begins to quicken as he notices that he isn't in his room. He pulls the covers off his legs and whips his legs of the side of the bed. He plants his feet on the ground and as he stands something buckles in his right leg and he falls to the ground the floor releasing a loud thud sound, laughing at his stupidity.

The door to the room swings open and a girl is standing in the doorway, "Are you okay?" She puts down a cup of what seems to be tea and helps Seth back onto the bed, "You have a pretty bad burn on your ankle you should keep off it for a while."

Seth looks at the girl ad his dream flashes before his eyes again, "This is too weird, I need to wake up."

The girl looks at him with an irritated and confused look, "What are you talking about, you aren't sleeping." Seth closes his eyes and starts mumbling about how he won't even remember this when he wakes up, "Hey you are awake!" She whips her hands down and accidentally hits his burnt ankle making Seth's eyes bolt open and his body jumps from the pain.

"Ow, hey what are you doing?" Seth slides of the bed and once again stands on the ankle but doesn't fall but he quickly hobbles towards the door. Seth reaches for the door knob but the pain in his ankle is too much and he falls forward and takes a seat on the floor, "This sucks......."

The girl walks over to him and hands him the cup, "Here drink this it will help with the pain." She smiles as she watches him cautiously take the cup and drink. "My name is Rain, remember?"

To his great surprise his pain begins to fade until it is more like a minor pinching pain, "Wow that stuff was great, what was in it, must have some drugs in it huh?"

Rain takes the cup and looks inside, completely empty, "I made it I have some healing magic skill and I used it on the tea."

Seth finds this all to be very overwhelming, "I don't get it.....I'm gonna need some proof."

Rain pulls her wand out from inside her pocket and a small droplet of water starts to spiral around the wand, "Good enough?" Seth shakes his head and states that such a trick is too dream like. Rain gets up and takes Seth's hand. She leads him outside and to the center of the small town, "Look around does this place look anything like where you come from?"

Seth looks around and finds all the two story stone buildings to be not familiar in the least, "Well no, but..................." Seth can't come up with any reason to not believe her and yet he doesn't want to accept it.

"Hey familiar!" Seth turns to see who is being yelled at just to find that he is the one being yelled at. The teen from before that burned him up walks towards him, "Wow, I'm surprised you are up and about already."

Seth feels very angry all of a sudden though he can't really understand why, "Maybe you'd like to trying again, maybe you won't try to burn your sister this time." All at once he understands why he is mad, not because Cloud tried to burn him but because Cloud almost burned Rain. Seth left arm feels like it's on fire and he looks over at it and he not only has a tattoo but it's glowing!

Rain steps between them, "Not this again, Cloud if you are going to lead you need to stop picking fights with my familiar, no one will respect and follow a bully who can bend fire."

Cloud backs off and looks around and notices a few old people taking some interest in the small squabble. "Next time you'll show me proper respect commoner." Cloud turns and walks away leaving Seth still angry and confused.

"What is his problem!?"

Rain turns around and slaps Seth in the face, "I command you to stop doing that!"

Seth's puts his hand against the stinging skin, "I was sticking up for you!"

"You have to show him respect, he is going to be the leader of these people soon enough." Rain's eyes begin to tear up from angry or something else.... "What good would you be if you go burned to a crisp. Would you believe this isn't a dream anymore then!?" Rain goes to slap him again but this time he catches her wrist.

"I'm sorry......." Seth looks down at the ground and lets go of her wrist, "I will try to show your brother respect."

"So you don't think this is a dream anymore?"

Seth buries his hands in his pockets, "I don't know, no one usually cares about me or what I do, so if you do then that seems pretty unreal, but my burn, it felt so real."

Rain gently takes his chin and lifts it up so that he is looking at her eyes, "I promise you, you are not dreaming. If you believed that this is a dream then you are not from around here."

Seth smirks and steps back out of her grasp, "I am from the USA."

"USA?"

"The United States of America......?" Rain shrugs and shakes her head. "Ummm....Okay I'm pretty good with places where is this."

"We are in western Tristain."

Seth begins to think about it then realizes that Tristain can't really exists because people who can fire blasts of fire like a flamethrower out of a staff would be something talked about in the news, "Is this Earth?"

"Earth?" Rain finds the term just as confusing as USA.

"So this isn't Earth, well that is odd."

Rain begins to laugh, "What is odd is your clothing."

Seth looks at what he is wearing a black shirt and blue jeans, "What is wrong with my clothing?"

Rain points to his pants, "That is such a strange looking material."

Seth doesn't take offense to it but laughs at her for thinking blue jeans are strange, "Well what about you what are you wearing, a black cape a button up shirt and a black skirt, you look like a school girl from a comic book."

"Comic book?"

Seth thinks about it, "A book with pictures in it, about heroes and villains." She nods apparently finding no strange words in his explanation, "Anything else you want to make fun of."

She shakes her head, "I think I understand, is there anything you wish to now about me?"

Seth mind floats towards less than classy questions, "Uhhhh......If Cloud is your brother and he is going to be leader one day is your dad like a king or a chief or something?"

Rain looks down at the ground, "Well, yes he was...."

"Was?"

Rain looks up at him, "He got sick a couple of months ago and died...."

Pain flows over Seth's body again though this time it is a different kind of pain, "If this isn't a dream than............"

"What is there something wrong?"

Seth fights back the pain, "No, no just all this talk about family got me thinking about something, do you mind if I wander around for a while.......alone?"

Rain notices his voice has become strained and can tell something is wrong, "Yes, but you got to come back before night time otherwise I'll have to punish you for not following my rules. You are my familiar after all."

"Yeah........"

He turns and walks away heading in a direction that has the least amount of houses, "Mom......"

Seth finds a hill with a large tree overlooking the entire town. Behind him a small makeshift cross has been planted into the ground. The sun has begun to set and a beautiful sun set is made. As Seth is looking over the town he notices a group of people riding horses coming towards the town.

The leader of the horsemen gets off his steed and looks over the assembled mass of people, "I demand to see Squall, where is he?"

Cloud steps forward, "My father is sick in bed and I will act in his stead."

The man looks over Cloud, "You seem rather young to be a leader of the town even a temporary one." The man pulls out a knife and holds it to Cloud's throat, "Tell Squall I'll kill his boy if he doesn't come out and sees me."

The crowd begin whispering amongst each other until Rain steps in front of them, "My father died a month ago, please let Cloud go!"

The man shoves Cloud to the ground, "You lied to me boy........It makes no difference whether you did or not we are here to tell you all that the payment has been raised by fifty percent."

Cloud gets up, "We can't afford to pay you anymore than what we already do. Without my father we are having a very hard harvest we won't make any profit at all if you want more!"

The man smiles, "Like I said before, it makes no difference."

"We can't pay you!"

The man puts his knife away and pulls out a wand and a large ball of fire begins to grown at the point of it, "If you can't afford to feed such a large amount of people maybe I should do you a favor and kill some of them!"

The man blasts the fire at the crowd. The world seems to slow down as the fire begins to close the distance to the crowd. Seth jumps in front of the fire and with a loud roar holds the flames back burning his hands in the process.

"Oh look at that someone with some guts." Seth falls to the ground and quietly groans in pain at his burnt hands, "We'll take him."

Seth looks up at the man as two others takes his arms and binds his wrists together, "Hey what are you doing!?"

The man slams his fist into Seth's gut knocking him out cold, "If there are any other opinions that need to be voices I'll here them now."

Rain prepares to say something but Cloud takes her arm and glares at her silently telling her that this is the only way to get out of this situation without getting someone killed.

The men get back on their horses and ride of towards the east.

"Seth..........."


	3. Chapter 3

Master Gen

Seth opens his eyes to find the ground flying past only a few feet from his face. Like anyone else would Seth begins to struggle to get his face away from the fast moving ground but suddenly it feels like someone just hit him with a hammer in his spine. The ground stops moving so fast and he quickly remembers what he did and immediately regrets acting like some hero.

Suddenly whatever was holding his legs down releases and he flips over the side of the horse and crashes down onto his back. One of the men grabs him by the rope binding his wrists and pulls him to his feet.

Seth is shoved towards a man sitting in front of a fire. The man stands up and turns around, it is the man that tried to kill all the towns people before, "Why did you take me prisoner?" The man cocks back his fist and whips his arm forward connecting with Seth's face dropping him. Seth rolls over onto his stomach and pushes himself back up to his feet. The man smirks and swings again, this time Seth blocks the punch but can't stop the left arm as it strikes him in the gut and he falls to his knees coughing.

_'Two days ago I wouldn't have even gotten involved, what is this world doing to me?'_

Seth gets back up. He blocks a right dodges the left but is caught with a straight kick in the gut. Seth catches the foot but one of the men behind him hits Seth in the back of the head. Seth lets go of the foot but it quickly proves to be a mistake as a foot finds the side of Seth's head knocking him back down to the ground.

"Listen here boy, we are going to break you, and one day you will accept your new position in our ranks." The man turns back around and sits back down.

Seth rolls over onto his back so that he isn't breathing into the ground and one of the other men places a boot across his throat, "Get.....hack off...me!"

The man applies more pressure, "You will learn to show Raven respect, and as his second in command you will show me respect, the more you squirm the worse this will be."

Seth can't help but squirm as the man is crushing his throat until he can not breathe at all. The cold darkness of unconsciousness takes him again.

The fire is warm against his face as he slowly opens his eyes. The sound of shouting and screaming horses makes him snap out of his just woke up stupor. Seth sits up and the camp is completely torn apart. Seth stands up and finds the man that forced Seth into his premature sleep is on the ground dead from a knife wound in the throat.

"You bandits are not welcome here." Seth turns around and sees another one of the men being cut down.

Seth turns and runs in the opposite direction. Before he can get even get out of the camp he is caught by the back of the shirt and pinned to the ground, "Ready to die bandit?" The man puts his knife to Seth's throat.

"Wait, wait, wait, I'm not a bandit I was capture by these guys yesterday! Please get that knife away from my throat, I am not a bandit!"

The man keeps the knife to Seth throat, "What village are you from?"

Seth starts mentally freaking out because he can't remember the village name and he doesn't even think he asked. He starts searching in his memory to find something that could be relevant to this man. "I don't know the name it west of here, uh....uh, the daughter of the leader is named Rain, her brother is gonna be leader soon his name is, Cli....Clu.....Cloud, Cloud, I can't remember anything else, come on I already told you I'm not with those bandits!"

Another man walks up behind the one that is pinning Seth to the ground, "Tristin get off him, he is just a teenager."

He gets off Seth and nods his head toward the other much older man and walks away. The old man takes Seth's hand and helps he get up, "Don't be angry with Tristin he has a dead hatred for the bandits."

Seth gets up and rubs his throat, "Well at least I'm not getting punched out by that Raven guy no more...."

"Raven, he was here!?" The man begins to look around the area with a more tense air around him before, "Do you know which direction he went?"

Seth shakes his head, "No, sorry."

The man scratches the top of his head, "Don't worry about it." The man reaches out his hand and shakes Seth, "My name is Gen, are you lost or can you find your way back to your village?"

Seth looks around and then looks back at Gen, "I'm not really from around here, I have no idea where to go."

Gen calls Tristin back over, "I need to use your familiar." Tristin whistles a short tune and a hawk like bird lands on his shoulder. Gen goes into his pack and pulls out a piece of paper and writes something down. After he finishes he ties it around the birds leg, "Now I need you to tell him to visit every western village with this message.

Tristin whispers something that doesn't sound like any normal language to his hawk and it flies off into the dark sky, "So what are we gonna do with....."

"Seth, my name is Seth, thanks for saving me." Seth puts out his hand so that Tristin can shake his hand but he doesn't accept the gratitude and walks away. "Geeze....."

Gen laughs and nods his head motioning for Seth to follow him.

_'This place is freaking crazy, I can't believe the mess I've gotten myself into.' _

Seth follows behind Gen back into the destroyed camp, "So why did you attack these bandits?"

Gen starts looking over the equipment left on the ground by the killed bandits, "I hate them, and they are also trespassing on land that isn't theirs right now." Gen stands up and walks back over to Seth, "Are you skilled?"

"Skilled?"

Gen puts a pair of metal gauntlets in Seth's hands, "Can you defend yourself?"

Seth looks down at the gauntlets, "Not really, I wouldn't have been captured if I could have defended myself. I mean I did stop that fire ball but-"

"You stopped a fire ball?" Gen begins stroking his chin, "So you have some skill."

Seth smiles at the idea, he didn't really think about it before but he did stop that fire ball from killing all those people, "Thanks, I guess."

Gen suddenly lunges forward and swings at Seth who jumps backwards narrowly dodging the first attack. Gen plants his hand on the ground and flips forward and hits Seth with a mule kick. Seth falls to the ground and quickly pulls the gauntlets onto his hands. Gen feints a left hook and tries to hit Seth with spin kick. Seth summersaults under the kick and ties to hit Gen with a back kick. Gen grabs his foot with one hand and throws the foot down making Seth stumble and Gen connects with a palm strike into Seth's forehead knocking him to the ground.

Seth gets up, his face is filled with rage and Gen lifts his hand, "Wait, I'm sorry I just wanted to see for myself how good you are." Seth falls to his knees and clutches at his gut where he was kicked by Gen, "Sorry for that."

Seth looks up at him form the ground, "So how'd I do?"

Gen chuckles, "I'd say out of one hundred levels you would be around five." The sound of being at only level five out of one hundred really bothers Seth.

"Well thanks for the demoralizing statement." Gen laughs again and helps Seth to his feet.

"Well if you were already overly talented then you'd have nothing to do while the hawk is away trying to find the village that you came from."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"If you die now I will feel like it is my fault, because I have the means to make you into a strong fighter. I believe in a higher power and I believe in karma, if this is truly a sign then I will not waste an opportunity." Gen picks up a pack and tosses it to Seth, "Come on, you are going to need some rest if we are going to start training you tomorrow.

"Hey uh, Gen, how long do you think it will take for that Hawk to find the village?"

"Depends on how long they have been riding and how many villages he has to go to before finding the right one."

Seth nods and follows Gen into the dark.


	4. Chapter 4

Month Later

Gen opens the door to his wards room once again with a bucket of water just like all the times before, "You awake Seth?" No response urges Gen to bring the bucket back but a hand suddenly snatches the bucket of cold water away. Gen turns around and a splash of water hits him in his upper chest.

Seth puts the bucket down on the floor, "Morning Master Gen."

Gen wipes a few long white strands of hair form his face, "You'll pay for that later Seth?"

Seth smiles and helps his Master to his feet, "I kinda figured that but it was worth it." Gen grabs a towel and wipes off his face. "So Master what are we doing today?"

Gen re-ties his long hair back and changes his shirt, "Today is a very special day Seth, today is Strongest Day."

"I don't understand, I mean I know this place is called Strongest Town but what is Strongest Day?"

Gen sits down at the small wooden table in the middle of the room, "Strongest Day is the day of our town wide tournament. The idea of this tournament is to see who has the most strength and cunning and that person will be the leader of the town until the next tournament." Seth sits down across from his Master, "I have entered you in the tournament as my representative."

"You can do that?"

Gen smiles and puts his hand under his chin, "Well I won the last tournament so I pulled a few strings."

Seth's eyes grow wide, "In all this time you never told me that!?"

Gen smoothly says, "It never came up."

Seth gets up from his seat and pushes in his chair, "So when does the tornament start?"

Just as smoothly Gen looks up into the green eyes of his student, "About fifteen minutes...."

The news catches Seth off guard and he runs into his room. A few minutes later Seth comes out wearing black pants, his own black and white chuck talors, and a black sleeveless shirt showing off his better toned body. Seth looks at his arms and the rest of his body, "I can't believe that in just a month you have made me into what I am now." Gen smiles and nods, "Master you said before when we first met that out of one hundred levels I was a five, how high have I acended?"

Gen stands up and scratches at his forehead, "I'd say.......six"

Seth practically falls over, "What!?"

"I haven't fought you since that night, all I've done is train you." Gen slides his chair in and wave for Seth to follow him out the door. The whole way to the center of town Seth is harping at Gen about how could he only have progress from five to six. Before Seth realizes it he is standing in front of a big board that has a majority of the men's names in the whole town.

"Wow......Hey wait, Tristin isn't in the tournament?"

Gen puts his hand on Seth's shoulder, "This town is rare in that nobels or mages don't get special treatment. Tristin knows that he isn't allowed to enter because of his use of magic. Besides I think he has found himself happy to be the right hand man."

"What do you mean?"

"Because of his familiar, his natural fighting skills, and his ability to use magic and deal with other nobles he has garnered the reputation to be a shoe in for the second in command under the town leader." Gen looks over the crowd and finds that Tristin is sitting in the front row, "He is an invaluable asset to this town, but certain rules must never be broken."

Seth nods and notices that on the board he is going against the biggest man in the whole village first, "Ah shit, that sucks."

"Seth any enemy can be beaten if you try hard enough, no defense is impenetrable."

Seth nods and a man calls his name from the stage that the fight is taking place on.

Seth puts his gauntles on and jumps up onto the stage, as he is walking towards the ref, he looks forward at Gray the most muscular man in the whole town. Seth never faught him but he has seen his fists shatter stone. A bead of sweat falls down his forehead. Gray starts laugh as the ref says the two rules, "No killing, if you fall off the stage you lose."

Seth nods and Gray lets out another hardy laugh. The ref runs off the stage and a bell rings before Seth is ready. Gray slams his fist into Seth's gut dropping him to the ground coughing and hacking for air. Gray picks Seth up and throws him to the edge of the stage. Seth quickly gets back to his feet and finds the hulking man overly intimidating. Gray runs at Seth and swings Seth ducks under the punch but gets a back hand from Gray's left hand. The blow sends Seth sliding along the edge of the stage. Seth kips up to his feet and wipes the blood from his mouth. Grey starts laughing again. As he is laugh Seth runs towards him and flips over the six foot man and punches him square in the forehead. The giant man falls to his knees.

_'no matter how muscular his body is his head wil still be just as vonerable'_

Seth spins and slams the heel of his foot against the side of Gray's head. Gray gets back to his feet and swings trying to connect with another back hand but Seth ducks again.

"GOTCHA!!!!"

Gray raps his tree trunk like arms around Seth's body and begins to squeeze the air right out of him. Gray slowly begins to intensify the pressue of his bear hug. Seth begins breathing very shallowly and final stops and Gray drops him. As the ref is getting back on the stage Seth rolls back onto his feet and shoulder tackles Gray knocking him off the edge of the stage. The crowd is completely silent, Seth just not only tricked Gray but legally beat him.

The silence continues until Gray starts laughing his big hardy laugh again, "Well done boy, you sure are a strange one, GAH HA HAHAHAHAHA!" The crowd starts claping and cheering for both of them.

Seth slowly gingerly gets off the stage wincing as he lands on the ground. Gen walks up to him and has a frown cemented in his face, "Master?"

Gen's frown turns in a big smile, "Well done, I wasn't sure if you'd win, but I am happily proved wrong."

Seth smirks but doesn't say anything he just sits down and holds his gut where Gray first hit him. After four other matches the ref calls for Seth again, he stands up and is pleased to find that a majority of the pain has gone away.

Seth stands in the middle of the stage opposite to a young man Seth had seen many times outside of the town farming.

The ref quickly gets off the stage and the bell rings. Seth tries to take advantage like Gray did but the man pushes down on Seth's incoming fist making him loose his balance and fall onto his face. Seth quickly gets to his feet and tries to connects with a spinning kick but the farmer ducks and slides forward. The man jumps as Seth's leg is over his left sholder and once again knocks Seth to the ground. Seth slowly gets up this time and waits for the farmer to attack, he doesn't... Seth slowly walks towards the man, every step calculated. As soon as he is within range Seth tries to connect with a right crossing punch but the man pushes the fist and Seth falls to the ground. This time Seth plants his hand and just like Gen did to him, mule kicks the farmer in the gut. The farmer stumbles back and Seth quickly gets back to his feet and jumps forward. Using gravity to give him momentum Seth connects with his elbow knocking the slender farmer head over heals and down hard on his face. Seth turns back to the fallen farmer still ready for him to rise......he doesn't.

The ref runs in and whispers to the farmer. The farmer shakes his head and the ref calls the match, Seth wins via unable to continue.

Seth hops off the stage and finds Gen sitting next to Tristin, "Hey Tristin how have you been?"

Tristin looks over Seth and scoffs, "You won't win."

Seth figures that Tristin is mad because his hawk has been gone for a whole month trying to find the village that Seth was abducted from, "So Master, how was that?"

Gen smiles and looks at his pupil, "Tristin is right." Seth is completely demoralized and sits beside Gen and stays quiet.

As the tournament continues Seth defeats challenger after challenger until he is in the last match to determine the leader of the village. Something seemed way to easy as the tournament continued. After the first two rounds all the challengers where much easier, not because they were fatigued, but something else seemed very worng.

Seth stands face to face with a man a good two feet taller and easily two hundred pounds heavyier, "No matter you made it to the finals."

"Time to teach you a lesson boy." The bell rings and the behemoth jumps off the stage. The ref calls a ring out and Seth is standing before a majority of the town completely dumb-struck.

"I just won the tournament......I can't lead a town."

"You won't have to," Gen stands up and hops onto the stage, as he rolls up his sleeves he looks at Seth who is more than just a little confused, "I am your final oponent."

"Master? But you weren't even in the tournament."

"The leader of the town is the final challeger in the tournament, to become leader you must be able to overcome many things this tournament tests one over thing that I didn't mention, your will to survive." Gen finishes rolling up his first sleeve and starts on the second, "Why do you think it was becoming easier, that last man was happy to be third in the village, but he knew that I would win."

Seth can't belive what he is hearing, "Why did you lie to me? You could have just fought me like the time before."

Gen finishes and drops into his stance, "I don't fight for no reason." Gen hops backwards and thrusts off the ground launching himself at Seth.

Seth dodges some of the attack but Gen manages to connect with an elbow strike to his side. Seth rolls to his feet and jumps as high as he can. Gen stops skidding and looks up as Seth flips forward and slams his leg down onto Gen's blocking forearm. Gen doesn't faulter and pushes Seth off making him backflip to his feet. Gen lands seven palm strikes to his chest and ends the combo with a spinning back hand knocking Seth down to his knee. Before Seth can get up the rest of the way Gen connects with a spin kick and knockes Seth over the rest of the way. Gen kneals down and picks Seth up by the color of his shirt and drops him onto his feet. Seth looks at him confused, but quickly shakes the confusion and tries to connect with a straight left punch. Gen dodges and catches his wrist leaving Seth wide open. Gen whips his foot up and begins to pummel Seth with a flurry of kicks. Seth falls to his knees and tries to block as much of the attack as possible. Gen jumps over Seth still holding his wrist, as Gen lands behind Seth he yanks on his arm pulling him over onto his back. Gen flips backwards and lifts his legs so that his knees will land on Seth's chest. Seth quickly rolls backwards barely dodging the knees. Seth grabs hold of Gen's shoulders and falls backwards throwning Gen backwards into the ground. Gen hops back to his feet and charges at Seth. Gen feints a right hook and slams his left forearm into Seth's chest. Seth falls backwards but pushes off the ground with his hands and flips behind Gen as he turns around. Seth drop kicks Gen in the back making him stumble forward. Seth charges at Seth but suddenly stops as a light catches his attention.

Gen stands up and looks at Seth who is looking at his left biscep, "Seth! Pay attention." Gen charges forward until he notices what Seth is looking at, strange glowing makings on his arm.

"Master what is this?" Seth looks at Gen, turning so that the rest of the crowd can see his arm.

The crowd starts booing and looks like they are about to rush the stage. Gen stands in front of Seth with his arms spread out.

"Seth what is that?"

Seth tries to reason, "I don't know this has only happened once or twice, I don't know what it is!"

Gen nods and turns back to the crowd, "You all will stop, I won't have you treating this boy this way." The crowd slowly quiets down, "Seth you said you don't know what that is right."

"Yes!"

"I believe you, and all of you should as well. What reason would he have to lie to us?" A strange sound echos from above the crowd.

Tristin's familiar swoops through the crowd until it finds and lands on Tristin. He looks at the note tied to its leg and nods at Gen.

Gen looks back over the crowd, "He won't be staying here much longer anyway."


	5. Chapter 5

Rain and Wind

After the crowd leaves Tristin walks up to Gen and Seth with his familiar standing securely on his shoulder. He hands the note to Gen and he hands it to Seth.

_The boy mentioned is my familiar. He was taken by bandits that came to our village to take our money and crops. I am on my way to your town and should be there within three days._

_ ~ Rain Strine_

Seth puts the note in his pocket and breathes a sigh of relief though he quickly thinks about his new situation. In Strongest Town all he did was train for a month straight he didn't have a job and didn't really have anything to worry about, it was a refreshing change of pace. When Rain comes and takes him back home he will have to deal with Cloud and the rest of the town.

Gen bends so he can see Seth's face, "Hey, are you okay you are acting kind of strange for someone who is about to be taken back to their hometown."

Seth looks at Gen and Tristin, "It isn't my hometown, when I said I'm not from around here I mean that I'm not from this world, this planet. I was sucked into this world by a portal and I fell from the sky and crashed through a house roof at the village that Rain is from." Tristin scoffs, "IT'S THE TRUTH!"

Gen finds the information hard to believe but then thinks about the note, "You are a familiar?"

Seth shakes his head, "I don't even know what a familiar is, I don't understand and you never told me anything about it cause I never asked." Seth points at Tristin's hawk, "That bird is your familiar right, well I'm not a bird I am a human, are all familiars supposed to be animals?"

Gen shrugs, "I am not a noble, I have no familiar."

Tristin crosses his arms and raises his eyebrow, "I don't see how you can be a familiar I have never heard of a human being summoned in the summoning spell."

Seth looks at his marking on his shoulder, "Well I was sucked into a green light and the next thing I knee I was falling like I had jumped out of a plane."

"Plane?"

"Never mind....This girl was saying things that I couldn't understand....she kissed me! My arm started to burn like it was put inside of a fire and then she pointed a wand at me and I could understand what everyone was saying."

Tristin nods, "Well other than the understanding spell that sounds like normal summoning ceremony and if you have those marks after she kissed you, then you must be a familiar."

"But what is a familiar exactly, what am I supposed to do?"

"A familiar is supposed to follow the orders of their mage, be as useful as they can in any situation, and protect them with their life." Seth doesn't like the sound of the first part.

"So whatever Rain says I have to obey her, no matter how stupid?" Tristin nods and Seth kicks a rock, "That sucks......."

A few days later a lone horse and rider comes into town The person gets off the horse and pulls back the hood on the cloak, "Seth?" Rain calls for him as there are only a few people on the streets at the moment. Rain starts walking down the main road looking around trying to locate someone who sticks out like a sore thumb.

Gen connects with a strong kick and Seth goes flying off the roof of the house. As he is falling he flips backwards and as he hits the ground he tucks and rolls to soften the impact. Seth stands up and wipes some sweat from his brow.

"Seth?"

Seth spins around and finds himself standing in front of Rain, shirtless. Seth's face turns red and he jumps onto the overhang above the front door to the house and then the roof. Before Rain can follow Seth flips off the roof and lands in front of her again this time, with a shirt, "Uh....hi, Rain."

Silence ensues and Seth doesn't know what to do. Rain suddenly steps forward and wraps her arms around him, "Thank goodness your okay, I was worried."

"You worried about me?"

She moves back, "Of course I worried about you, you are my familiar and I don't want bad things happening to you."

"…......Thank you..."

Gen comes out of the house instead of jumping off the roof, "You must be Seth's mage." Gen does a small bow, "I am Gen the leader of this town. You don't need to worry, I've trained him so that he can defend himself now."

Seth pokes at Gen with his elbow, "So I am strong enough now?"

Gen chuckles, "You still can't beat me so I'd watch yourself."

Seth steps away from Gen and looks at Rain, "So are we gonna head back right now?"

Rain nods, "We should, my brother will worry if we take too long."

Seth walks back into the house and comes out with a pack, "I am ready."

Only a few random people see Seth off not including Tristin, though that doesn't really surprise Seth.

As they walk from the town Rain looks at Seth's new outfit, "It's nice to see you have started dressing a little more normally." She mentally notes the lack of sleeves on his shirt, "Why do you have that cloth covering your left arm?"

Seth smiles at her, "Where I come from people where these to hide things that they don't want people to see because they might be afforded." Seth rolls the top of it down a little bit so the symbols are uncovered, "I started wearing this because these marks made people uncomfortable in that town."

She nods in understanding and looks at the horse, "I think we are going to have to just set up camp because the horse is too tired to carry us both back to the village."

The sun had already began to set anyhow so Seth doesn't protest and he takes the reigns from Rain and ties the horse to a nearby tree, "Do you want me to get some firewood or something."

Rain is sitting against a tree hugging her knees to her chest, "No we should just go to sleep so we can get back to the village by nightfall tomorrow."

"Ah, okay, well I am going to find a river." Seth starts to walk away.

Rain stands up, "Wait you'll get lost again. You shouldn't go alone."

Seth smiles and scratches at the back of his head, "I am going to find a river so I can wash up. We left the village kinda abruptly and I'd like to take a bath. Don't worry it is easier to get un-lost if you are awake to see where you went."

Seth smirks and walks into the darkness leaving Rain alone.

_'At least he has finally accepted he isn't in some fairy tale dream'_

A rustling in a nearby tree makes Rain begin to panic a little, "Seth?"

A body comes out of the tree and pins Rain to the tree behind her.

"Get off me!"

The voice is cautious and nervous, "Please just give me some money, I need some money."

"SSSEEETTTHHHHH!!!!!"

Rain's voice echoes from behind him and Seth sprints back to her. Seth finally gets back to the camp and finds Rain pinned to a tree by someone. Seth runs and tackles the figure to the ground forcing open the cloak covering his head. Oliver hair falls out from inside the hood and covers the assailants face.


	6. Chapter 6

Airo

Seth gets off the man, "What do you think you are doing?"

"I just need some money." The man gets up and removes the cloak showing that he is basically the same size as Seth, "I just need a little more money."

Seth puts his gauntlets on, "So you are a thief!?"

Seth lunges forward and swings at the boy. The boy flips backwards and dodges the blow. He lands on his feet and kicks Seth right in the side of his leg. Seth swings again but misses as the teen rolls under his fist and sweeps Seth's legs. Seth quickly gets to his feet and blocks another kick. Seth clutches the boy's ankle and slams his fist into his opponents gut and lifts him off the ground. Seth continues driving his fist in and he uses his fist to slam the man into the ground. Seth gets off him again and backs up a little.

The boy gets up, "Please stop, I just needed some money or something bad will happen."

Seth doesn't budge, "What will happen?"

"My wife could die!"

Seth drops his guard and looks back at Rain, "Are you okay?"

Rain looks over her body, "I am fine he didn't hurt me he just really scared me."

Seth looks back at the boy, "What is your name?"

The teen ties his long olive hair back so it's out of his face, "My name is Airo,"

Seth removes his gauntlets, "My name is Seth and this is my uhmm....."

Rain puts her hands on her hips and shakes her head, "My name is Rain Strine, and he is my familiar."

Airo looks at Seth and almost starts to laugh out loud, "Are you serious, surely you are pulling my leg."

Seth becomes slightly irritated, "Yes, it's true why is that so funny!?"

"I am too."

Rain can't believe what she is hearing, "You are a familiar?"

Airo roles up his pant leg and shows Rain and Seth a very familiar looking symbol on his ankle, "See these are my runes that I got after I met my wife Hina."

Seth rolls down his sleeve and shows Airo his runes, "I see, so we are the same huh."

Rain looks at Seth's biscep and Airo's ankle, "The symbols are similar but there are few little differences, but they are both on the left side of your bodies."

Airo kneels down, "Please, will you help me."

Seth looks back at Rain and she shrugs, "Airo how much do you need. If we can we want to help."

Airo gets back up, "Thank you, I need one hundred more coins."

Rain practically faints at the sound of such a high number, "That is a lot of money how much could this medicine possibly cost?"

Airo looks down at the ground, "Hina has a sickness that is reoccurring the reason for this high price is because this medicine is of such a high concentration that it doesn't alleviate, it completely gets rid of the sickness and builds a high immunity to many deadly sicknesses." Airo bows again, "I see by your reaction that you won't be able to help me."

Airo turns and starts to walk away, "Seth, I hope I'll see you again."

Rain runs in front of Airo, "Wait my brother is the leader of my village perhaps we can get the town to help, it isn't a very big town but maybe we can help you get closer to affording this medicine."

"Thank you very much, Rain Strine."

"Please, just Rain."

Seth takes a deep breath and looks at Airo, "Can trust you to not rob us while I go and finally get a bath."Rain looks uncomfortable with the idea and then glares at Seth, "On second thought why don't you come with me Airo, you look like shit."


	7. Chapter 7

First Mission

As the sun rises the group pack up and start heading back to the village to talk to Cloud.

Airo looks at Seth and notices his odd clothing and can't help but ask, "Seth, where did you get those clothes that you are wearing?"

Seth looks at his clothing, a shirt he had gotten from Gen, black sleeve on left arm.....blue jeans. Seth looks back at Airo and smirks, "Rain don't like them very much but they are called blue jeans. I got them from a clothing store in my world called Wal-Mart. I think they are made of a material called denim." He puts his hands into his pockets and keeps walking know that eventually a question about Wal-Mart will rise, but unlike his pants he can at least explain that Wal-Mart isn't a store built into a wall. Seth starts smiles at the idea and how he has to casually explain things that are so simple on Earth.

The group reach a bridge that connects two cliffs above a fast moving river. Airo and Rain start walking across the bridge while Seth stays on the other side. Rain turns around and puts her hands on her hips, "What is wrong Seth?"

Seth leans forward looking between the plants of wood, down into the rapids, "Is there another way?"

Rain walks back over to him his face is lightly covered with sweat, "Are you okay Seth." She puts her hand under his chin so that he stops looking down at the river, "Are you afraid of heights?"

Seth nervously says, "Ya." and looks at her and then back down at the rapids, "I don't deal well with really high places."

Rain sighs and sees no other way to get him across. She takes Seth by the hand, "Follow me, watch me, don't look down," Rain smiles making Seth feel less worried, "Okay?" Seth nods more interested in Rain at the moment than the rapids far below.

As she leads him he begins to completely forget about anything but Rain.

_'Wow her hands are so soft, her smile is so pretty'_

"HEY TRUSPASSERS!"

Seth snaps out of his thoughts and re-realizes how high in the air he is, "Oh shit!"

A group of men with red bandannas surround both sides of the bridge. A rather short man with long black hair appears to be the leader, "You are trespassing on my bridge."

Rain looks at the man and then to either side of the bridge, "There is no sign that this is your bridge, in fact I had traveled across this bridge two days ago!"

The man lifts his head up and crosses his arms, "Well that means that you gotta pay twice!"

Rain almost makes Seth fall off the bridge by angrily walking towards the man, "Listen I am the daughter of Squall Strine, I am a noble and I command you to leave us alone and stop trying to collect money from a free bridge."

The man steps forward closes the already small distance between him and Rain, "Bitch!" The man shoves her back and she trips onto the bridge. Seth suddenly runs past Airo on the bridge and jumps over Rain and slams his fist into the short man's jaw knocking him back into the group of men behind him.

The man stands up and his face contorts into a scowl as blood runs down his chin, "Do you know what you just did?" Seth looks at him with a mixture of confusion and anger, "You just killed your friends."

Seth turns around and the men on the other side of the bridge cut the ropes holding up the planks. The other side of the bridge falls and swings forward crashing into the side of the cliff wall, "What the hell are you doing?"

A man runs past Seth and goes to cut the other end of the rope but Seth grabs him by the wrist and slams his fist into his gut. A group of men tackle Seth and holds him down long enough for the other end to be cut. Without thinking Seth's body releases an energy like wind that blows all the men off him and he jumps off the cliff reaching desperately for Rain's hand. Just before hitting the water Seth captures her hand but the impact of the water knocks him out cold.

* * *

Seth opens his eyes and puts his hand up to his forehead and finds that his forehead has a cloth wrapped around it. He sits up wincing once his torso is vertical, "urrrgh...." He looks around the room and finds that Airo and Rain are also in the room unconscious.

Seth quickly climbs out of bed and his legs give out from under him and he crashes down to the ground. Seth grunts and crawls over to Rain's bed, "Rain? Rain.....Rain please wake up Rain."

The door opens up and a old man walks into the room. He bends down a little and takes Seth by under his biscep and helps his up to uneasy legs, "What happened to you boy?"

_'Boy?'_

Seth lets it fly, "We were crossing a bridge and some group of men in red bandannas came and cut the bridge rope and we fell into the river." The man doesn't say anything but lets out a "uh hu" and walks over to Rain, "Were you the one who helped us?"

The man coughs, "Hardly, the river ends rather peacefully about fifty feet from this inn and I found you three washed up on the banks. I got some of my patrons to help me get you all here."

"Well thank you." Seth notices that the man is checking Rain's pulse, "Is she going to be okay?"

"Yes, her pulse has slowed down because her body needs to rest, she probably won't wake up for a few more days." Seth lets out a sigh of relief, "Now about this gang." Seth sits back down on the bed and is about to start explaining but the man continues, "They are called the Red Gang and they have taken something very important from me." The old man walks over to Airo and checks his pulse, "I want you to go and get it for me."

"What, you want me to go get back what they stole from you!? Why should I, I mean I am grateful and all but-"

"But what boy? You'd all have died from sickness if I hadn't gotten you out of the water, If you do this for me I will be forever in your debt, will you really deny an old man?"

The old man makes Seth feel guilty, "What did they take?"

The old man stops checking Airo, "They took my granddaughter." Seth starts to feel anger building up inside him, giving him strength. "She is thirteen and has long blonde hair. Her name is Sakura."

Seth stands up, his anger over those men not only hurting Rain but kidnapping a little girl, "Where are they, I will go get her?"

The old man finds Seth's energy rather impressive, "They are in an abandoned building just north of here." Seth walks past the man and opens the door to the room, "Wait a moment, follow me." Seth follows the old man down a flight of stairs realizing that he is in a hotel/bar of sorts. The old man makes Seth wait while he goes into the "employee only" area of the establishment. A few minutes later the old man comes out with a pair of copper colored gauntlets with a runes imbedded into the hand area. "These are magic gauntlets, I figured from the pair you have that you are rather skilled in hand to hand combat. These gauntlets will let you use fire magic like a mage to a wand."

Seth takes the gauntlets and puts them on testing out how easily they move, "But how do I use the magic?"

The old man sits down on a stool taking a deep breath, "If you can't draw out the fire just by wanting to then the magic word is ignis."

Seth nods and walks outside followed by the old man. Seth points his hand into the air, "Ignis!" A blast of fire comes from the center of his hand and flies off into the sky. The fire dies before hitting the ground and Seth looks back at the man, "I will be back, if Airo wakes up could you send him after me? I might need his help."

"Good Luck."

Seth turns back to the man, "Thanks, I might need it, see you later old man."


	8. Chapter 8

The Red Base

After half hour of walking Seth finds himself infront of a old mansion like building, "Here we go I guess...." Seth pulls on the ignis gauntlets and slowly creeps around the side of the building. He crouches down and walks to a window. Seth grabs onto the window and pulls himself up.

There are at least twenty people in the big open area of the first story of the building. The longer he looks he notices a little girl with blonde hair holding a big silver plate with what Seth can only think is a beer of some sort carrying it around to the vulgar men of the Red Gang.

"Hey you what are you doing there?!" Seth drops down to the ground and turns are, "Well?"

* * *

The crowd of Red Gang men seem to having a good time. Someone clapping from the steps makes the loud group quiet down, the short man from before is standing on the third step form the bottom barely making him taller then the crowd.

"Men it is time. It is time for this gang to be know throughout Tristain. It is time for us to be the leaders of Tristain! The first step is always the hardest! Tomorrow we are going to take the Tristain magic academy!!!" The crowd begins to wildly cheer.

A loud crashing sound is followed by a man skidding into the room through the entrance way.

"What the hell is going on outside?"

Seth walks into the room, "You guys should have more guards outside you know?"

"GET HIM!!!"

Seth points his hand at the charging me, "IGNIS!!!"

A blast of fire knocks down a majority of the men as Seth jumps over the rest and once again slams his fist into the leaders face. Seth flips backwards to the floor and kicks a man in the face dropping him to the floor. Seth looks around the room and can't find the blonde girl anymore. A man runs up behind Seth a busts a stool over his back dropping him to his knees. Seth quickly thrusts his foot backwards slamming his foot into the front of the man's knee. Seth gets back to his feet and grabs the leader around the colar and holds him between him and the rest of the crowd.

"Where is the girl?" The remaining men in the crowd that can stand start moving towards Seth. A flame begins to grow around Seth left hand and he holds it up to the man's face. "Where is she!??"

Someone kicks Seth from behind and he falls forward dropping the man. Seth turns around and is kicked in the face before he can even see who hit him. Seth gets back to his feet and looks up at the man who kicked him. A man with long black hair in a long white leather coat. Seth steps back when he notices a little blonde girl behind him.

"Who are you and why did you come here and beat up my men?" The man's voice is very calm and smooth.

Seth can't believe what he is seeing, "That short sack of shit isn't the leader of the Red Gang?"

The man puts his hands into the pockets of his white coat, "You haven't answered my question."

"My name is Seth and I am here beating up these so called men because they tried to kill me, my friend, and a new friend of mine I just met. I am here because a sad old man saved me and asked me to do something in return for him. He asked me, to bring back his granddaughter." Seth looks back at the men behind him and fires another blast of fire knocking down the rest of the group, "I came here to end this gang."

The man removes his coat and calmly walks down the remaining steps. Seth prepares to fight the man.

Before Seth charges he notices that the man isn't charging at him he is just walking. Seth steps to the side and he walks right past him and out the door. Seth puts his hands down and looks at the man as he walks away, confusion mixed with some anxiety at his current position.

"HEY PUNK!"

Seth turns back around and the same short loser is on the steps but now he has someone trapped against him, a blonde girl. The man starts laughing and brings a knife up to the girls throat, "Not so strong now huh PUNK!?" The man pushes the blade against her throat a small crimson line snakes down the terrified girls neck, "On your knees."

Seth puts his hands up and gets down on his knees, "Easy, you don't have to do this....."

The short man with Sakura walks forward and boots Seth in the gut, "Shut up!" the blown makes Seth hunch over, "Straighten up!" Seth does as he is told and the man slams his boot into Seth's gut again this time Seth doesn't curls over. Another boot, another, another, another, the man slams his foot into the bottom of Seth's jaw knocking him over onto his back. The girl screams as Seth spits out a mouthful of blood and slowly gets back onto his knees.

"Any last words before I kill you?"

Seth looks up but doesn't look at the man instead he looks at Sakura and smiles, "Don't worry, just hold still."

The words enrage the man as he removes the knife from Sakura's throat and thrusts it at Seth. Like a gust of wind the knife stops advancing and the short man falls to the ground a knife buried in his chest. Seth opens his eyes and slowly stands up clutching his chest with one arm and rubbing his chin with the opposite hand.

"Airo, what took you so long?" Sakura turns around and finds Airo standing behind her, "If you could've shown up a little sooner maybe my stomach wouldn't hurt so bad right now."

Airo smirks and retrieves his knife, "I got here as fast as I could."

Seth kneels down next to the little girl, "Hey your grandpa sent us, he misses you."

The sound of her granddad makes the little girl less scared and rapps her arms around Seth's neck. Seth lifts the girl up and they walk out of the building. Once they are a few feet form the building Seth kneels down and the little girl gets off.

"IGNIS!" Seth fires another blast of fire into the building and continues to fire into the building until it catches fire well enough to sustain itself. Seth picks Sakura back up and starts walking back to the to the old man's inn.

* * *

A few hours later the they finally arrive back at the inn and they are greeted by the old man and they take the girl upstairs so she can rest.

The old man brings Seth and Airo back down into the bar area of the inn, "Thank you, both of you." Seth nods and Airo smirks both being a little uncomfortable with the thanks. "Is there anything I could do for you young man?"

Seth looks at Airo, "Well, his wife needs medicine really bad and he has been all over Tristain trying to get money to afford it."

The old man seems very surprised about Airo's marriage, "What is the medicine?" Airo hands the man a piece of paper from his pocket, "Morbis......MORBIS?" The old man walks back into the employee only area and comes back out with a little brown box, "Here open this."

Airo opens the box and a purple glass tube the width of his thumb is inside, "Is this..."

The old man smiles, "Yup the medicine, this is the cure and elixer for Morbis, Sano." Airo hands the man back the box, "What you won't accept my gift?"

Airo shakes his head, "I can't possibly take this, this is a very expensive medicine, I couldn't possibly."

Seth crosses his arms, "Why don't you buy it from the old man?"

Airo looks at Seth, "But I am still short...."

The old man puts the box on the bar counter, "Give me what you have and the rest will be for saving my granddaughter." Airo nods and pulls out a rather large pouch. He puts it down on the counter and takes the box.

"Thank you very much, without you my wife would have died, Seth thank you too." Airo walks towards the door.

"Hey are you leaving right now?"

Airo opens the door and smiles, "Seth I owe you one as well if you need me for anything just travel north until you are at the Germanian, Tristain border closest to the ocean." Airo leaves the room and leaves Seth and the old man in an awkward silence.

Seth slowly backs up towards the steps, "I guess I should go check on Rain in case she has woken up."

"Yeah you go do that, just don't wake up Sakura when you go past her room."


	9. Chapter 9

Home

A few days later Rain wakes up and they leave the old man's inn without telling her the story leading her to believe that Seth and Airo worked in the inn for the rest of the money Airo needed.

Rain looks over at Seth and notices how in such a short amount of time he has practically become a native of Halkinginia, "Uhm Seth?"

Seth looks over at her and smiles, "Yes?"

Rain fumbles in her mind how to ask but she blurts out what she initially wanted to say, "What was your world like?"

Seth stops walking and can't believe what she just asked, "You believe that I'm not from here for sure now?" Seth starts walking again and shrugs, "Well I was born in a state that is surrounded by big lakes on three sides. We had really bad winters and the summers just never seemed to last long enough. Where I came from we didn't have very many large buildings and to be perfectly honost your village reminds me of my home, in size and amount of people." Seth crosses his arms and looks up at the sky, "It was so boring, there was nothing to do and practically impossible to make money."

Rain looks over at him, "What was your families trade?"

"Their.....trade?"

Rain laughs at him, "What did they do to make money, my village farms and makes various things to sell and trade, what about your family."

"Well I couldn't really tell you what my dad did, for all I know he's dead......" Seth shakes the bad feelings, "Well my mom was a........" Seth finds that reminiscing about his dead mother a painful subject and changes it again, "Well my brother work at a bank."

"Bank?"

"Oh yeah, no banks in this world huh?" Uhm a bank is where you go to store your money so that it is safe."

Rain nods, "But what if this bank spends your money?"

Seth tries to answer but realizes that he knows next to nothing about what actually happens in a bank, "Well I don't know....If my brother was here he'd be able to tell you." Seth looks down at the ground and starts kicking a stone as he catches up to it. The silence continues for a few more minutes before Seth speaks up again, "Ma, was a beautician.....she was always pretty depressed and liked to drink more than she liked being a mother. She pretty much stopped taking care of herself for those last couple of months, she stopped working and just sat around, usually drunk......"

Seth bumps into something and stops walking. He looks up and Rain is standing in his way. Before he can say anything she steps forward and wraps he arms around his torso. Before he can object a feeling or happiness and sadness flows over him and he can only lift his arms and hold onto her.

"Thank you."

* * *

A few miles from her village Rain looks up and sees smoke rising into the sky. Before Seth can react she jumps onto her horse and rides away.

"Rain!!!" Seth sprints after her.

Rain gets into the village first and finds that it has been massacred many of the old people are lying dead outside of their homes. Rain gets off the horse and starts running through the village trying to find Cloud.

Seth shows up awhile after she does and the site of the whole village smoldering brings him to his knees. He hears someone crying and races off in the direction of the sound. He rounds a corner around a house and finds Rain cradling Cloud's lifeless body.

Seth walks up to her and falls to his knees and just sits quietly as Rain cries. Seth looks at something Cloud has clutched in his dead hand, a red bandanna. Seth doesn't know what to think of it.

_'Could it have been the red gang, no that is impossible I destroyed the entire group, unless......maybe that wasn't the whole group maybe there is a much bigger group and that was just one of the smaller groups of the larger one.'_

Seth stands up and walks out of the village and up to the hill where he sat the last time.

A few hours Rain comes up to the hill and sits down beside him, "What are we gonna do now?"

Seth looks at her with a serious intensity in his eyes, "We are going to find them, we are going to make them pay." Rain nods and wipes her tears away. "We should get going before we completely lose track of these people."

Rain looks at him her eyes still teary, "How are we going to follow them?"

"There are tracks, I found them when I was waiting for you..." Seth stands up and helps her to her feet, "Let's go."

Rain gets up and says a few words in a language he doesn't understand, possibly a final prayer or a ritualistic tome. Rain looks over at Seth and grabs him by the wrist, "Well you please burn the village?

"What?!"

Rain takes his other wrist and shakes them, "We can't just leave all those bodies out for birds and other things to desecrate their bodies!"

Seth reaches behind his back and pulls his gauntlets on, ".................haaaaaaa........." Seth looks over at Rain and she nods. Seth plants his right foot and thrusts his hands forward, "IGNIS!!!!!" Seth fires a giant ball of fire that falls onto the middle of the town and the impact spread the flames throughout the little village.

The villages red and yellow flames shoot into the darkening blue of the sun set sky in a beautiful send off to Rain's village.


	10. Chapter 10

Zion

After a week of tracking Seth and Rain finally reach a spot where the tracks meet a road littered with horse and cart paths. Seth and Rain start walking down the road making sure that they don't miss anything like tracks leading away from the road, but nothing comes up until they reach a large town that has candle light polls lines both sides of the brick road.

Seth looks at Rain, "You know where we are?"

Rain shakes her head, "I can't really tell I never have gone this way in my life. We are going to be basically lost for a while."

Seth sighs, not something that he wanted to hear, "well let's start asking around if anyone saw a group of odd looking people possibly wearing red."

Rain nods and walks to the other side of the road and they both begin to ask people on the streets. After an hour of trying both return to the middle of the town.

"Did you find anything out?"

Seth puts his hands in his pockets and looks down the road to the north, "I didn't get anything that would convince me that the people where here. One woman said she saw one man walking down the road with platinum hair like nothing she has ever seen before."

Rain gets excited at the prospect of a clue, "So why doesn't that sound like a possible suspect in this?"

Seth doesn't want to tell her that he believes that man that burnt down the village is the same man that he let walk away back at the old mansion, "I just don't think he is the one."

Rain takes him by the wrist and squeezes hard, "He sounds suspicious, I want to find him."

Seth nods and frees his wrist from her tight grasp, "Fine, follow me." Seth walks towards the setting sun and Rain follows beside him. A few minutes later they arrive at a small doctors office. Seth points at the sign indicating it, "See this man is a doctor, not a murderer."

Seth turns so he can see Rain but she isn't there. Seth whips around and she is already standing in front of the door knocking, loudly. Seth quickly runs up the steps and captures her hand, "What are you doing." Rain's face is red with frustration, "Rain......" Seth lets go of her hand and she calms down a little.

The door opens and a teenager a little taller than Seth answers, "Yes...."

Rain and Seth look up, his hair is a mess of spikes, platinum....

Rain smiles and tries her best to not fling herself at him and start questioning or more seriously interrogating, "Um, we came here too......"

"We need medicine for Morbis, do you have some?"

The teen smiles and shakes his head, "I don't actually have any medicine here, I am a mage, I heal with magic. Do one of you have Morbis, it is rather difficult to heal."

Rain shakes her head, "No we don't have Morbis and we can't take to our friend because he is far away."

Seth notes innerly that she basically is retelling Airo's story only using him as the person who has it, "Could you possibly help us."

Zion looks down the road on both sides, "Yes come in..." Seth and Rain follow him into the building, a very simple home with hardly any furnituree and next to no medical or doctor like supplies to be seen, "I shouldn't be telling you this because it would really hurt the people who make the medicine but, the Morbis elixer isrelativelyy simple to make....."

Before he can continue Seth puts out his hand, "I'm sorry but we don't actually have a Morbis problem, we actually want to ask you some questions."

The teen sits down ver calmly, too calmly for inviting someone into their home just to be deceived, "Well, since you are already here you might as well ask."

Seth sits down in a chair and almost begins to speak when Rain starts, "I am Rain Strine of the Strine village and this is Seth my familiar." he looks at Seth and Rain with increased interest, "We where away from Strine for a few days visiting Strongest Town do you know of it?"

The teen nods, "Yes a rather simple village where magic and familiars are frowned upon and for the most part shunned, I've been there before."

Rain nods, "Well we where come back from Strongest Town when we saw smoke rising into the sky, Strine has been destroyed and we are the only two left from the village."

Seth speaks up, "We followed tracks leading away from Strine in this direction and we lost the tracks outside of this town, we've been gathering information and an old lady said that-"

"That I was a suspicious looking person?" Seth nods, "Most of the people in this town are like that when someone is mortally sick of wounded I am welcome here, but if there are no sicknesses of injuries they treat me like a criminal and would be more than happy to be rid of me."

Rain looks at him and can't seem to find anything overly unusual about him besides his hair, "Why did you do something that would make them dislike you?"

He smirks, "No, they don't like my magic, like I said, until they need it."

Seth doesn't like the sound of the greedy people in the town, "Why what is wrong with healing people?"

The teen stands up and grabs a knife, "This is why they don't like it." He swipes the knife across the front of his forearm creating a small cut. Seth stands up and gets in front of Rain finding the situation a little off. He puts the knife down and backs away from Seth and Rain, "Don't worry this is just a demonstration I'm not going to do anything to you or your mage." The teen closes his eyes and small sparks start to crackle around his pointer finger on his left hand. He opens his eyes and the left eye is now glowing with a rune inside the pupil. He brings his finger up to his cut and runs it along the bottom of it and the bleeding stops and the cut seals back up.

He sits back down in his chair and with a blink the eye is back to normal, "I have a rare kind of magic, "I don't need a wand, and I don't have a class or element. I can use all the elements including using nature and a few other that I am still working on."

Rain looks at him and then at Seth, "You are just like him!"

Seth looks at Rain with a smirk, "How do you figure?"

She sighs, "Idiot, the rune was in his left eye, your rune is on your left biscep and Airo's was on his left ankle, you guys are all alike."

Seth understands, "I guess you are right....." something dawns on Seth, "We never asked your name."

The teen stands back up and puts out his hand, "My name is Zion, it's nice to meet you."

Seth shakes his hand and smile, "this is just like a video game."

Seth doesn't notice that his thought was turned into speech, but Zion looks at Rain and she shakes her head and smiles.


	11. Chapter 11

Yellow

A few hours later Seth and Rain leave Zion's office with no more extra information than before they entered.

"What should we do?" Rain sits down on the ground in front of a closed fruit stand. Seth walks over to her and sits down beside her. He doesn't have any words of encouragement, there is nothing coming to his mind, he is just drawing a blank.

Rain looks up at the sky the sun has long gone down and the stars have begun to shine along with the two moons already high in the sky.

Seth looks at her, "Maybe Zion would let us sleep inside his office for tonight...." Seth looks at Rain who is smiling up at the stars, "Maybe not."

Rain brings her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around them, "This is the first time I've left home with the intention of never going back."

Seth looks at her with a little more understanding, "You can go back, we'll just have to rebuild it."

She smiles and shakes her head, "No, I don't want to rebuild, that place is now the grave yard of my entire village and my entire family when I return, it will be to be to join my family. Though by then someone else may have decided to build over it."

"What will you do then?"

She looks at him, "I guess I'd like to be buried under the tree that is on the hill outside the village, I'm sure no one would ruin such a place."

Seth leans back against the stand, "Yeah I guess."

Rain yawns and stretches her arms out, "What about you, are you going to be familiar still?"

Seth doesn't understand the question, isn't a familiar something that is always with its mage until death? That is what Seth has been lead to believe. "Of course, I'll stay with you forever, unless, you don't want me." Rain blushes at Seth's choice in words. Seth yawns and let's out a big breath, "I don't have anything else in this world so I'll do my best."

Rain looks at him his eyes seem to be glowing, "You'll try your best?"

Seth looks at her and starts panicing about what she thinks he meant, "I just mean that I will do my best to protect you, since I'm your familiar and all." She smirks at his new panicky self.

Seth stands up and reaches out his hand, "Come on lets see is we can find a place to sleep outside of town, I'd hate to be robbed of what little stuff we already have. Rain nods and takes his hand.

* * *

After have an uncomfortable sleep Seth and Rain decide to try and search in the slums of the town they are at since if the group isn't in the town they already lost a full day on them and would be untraceable.

Seth looks at Rain who has a cloak wrapped around her to hide her, "feminine features" in the less than honorable looking area of the town, "Stay close okay, I've seen places like this and I'm sure they are the same." Rain doesn't say it but she shows she understands by pulling the hood of the cloak up over her head.

Seth starts walking down the small alley way with Rain close behind him. For the next half hour Seth knocks on every door only to get a handful of people answering back. He asks if anyone possibly wearing red has gone by or if anyone suspicious has, most of the answer are a no. One door before hitting the end of the last alley a big yellow door at the far back of a dead ended alley way. Seth knocks on the door and a man wearing a yellow wristband answers.

"Yea waddaya wunt?!"

Seth is a little taken back by the man's speaking abilities, "Uhm, I am looking for a man or a group of people who burned down a village, more than likely they are wearing red."

The man starts laughing at Seth, spitting all the while, "Boy yu've fund yerself in a wholatta troble." The man reaches out and takes Seth by his shirt and yanks him into the building. Rain tries to follow but the door seems to only open from the inside.

Seth gets flips over the man's shoulder and his body crashes through a table four other men are sitting at. Seth doesn't get up right away instead he takes his time so that he can inspect the room to see if anyone is wearing red, none of them are.

"Okay, why did you do that?"

"If yea know about our brothus than yea needs ta be dealt wit."

Seth gets up and looks around the room, "You know I destroyed a whole house full of Red's what makes you think all five of you could beat me?"

The man that threw him through the table jumps up and spin kicks Seth in the face dopping him onto his hands and knees.

_'I see they might actually be better that the Reds'_

Seth gets back up and blocks another spin kick, but is punched in the side of the jaw. Seth shoves the one man back and side kicks the man that just punched him. He quickly ducks under another kick and blocks a second punch. Seth's biscep begins to glow. He punches the man on his left in the gut and the blow knocks him off his feet and down to the floor writhing in pain. Seth does a front flip and slams his feet into the man that yanked him into the building. The contact sends him into the far wall and down to the floor knocked out cold. Seth turns back to the other two yellow clad men and slams his right and left fist into the two of them at the same time both fall to the ground with shattered noses. Seth walks back over to the door and opens it.

"Rain you still out here?"

A cloaked figure comes out of the shadows, "I was going to shoot a blast of fire through the wall but I didn't want to catch it on fire." She walks in a pulls the hood down, "Are you okay?"

Seth rubs his jaw and the pain quickly goes away, "Yeah I guess my marks make me stronger and feel less pain when they are glowing because I thought my jaw would be broke but I feel fine."

"Interesting, so did you leave any of these guys conscious enough to talk to us?"

Seth starts laughing and looks around the room at the fallen bodies, "Hey wait a minute there was five of them counting the guy that grabbed me!?"

Rain looks around and notices a curtain hanging from a nearby wall. She walks over and pulls the curtain, "Well looks at that a well hidden hall way."

Seth walks over and pulls his gauntlets on before proceeding down the hall. The hall has no doors, but there is a light at the end of the hall. At the end of the hall there are steps that lead down into what seems to be a basement to the building.

Seth walks down the steps and finds himself standing on the far end of a large open room with a table and a few chairs on the opposite end.

Two men in yellow are talking to a man sitting in a large chair. Four men wearing red bandanna's are sitting at the table eating a banquet's worth of food. The man on the left looks across the room at Seth and runs over to the man in the large chair. Seth can hear what is being said but when the man in red points at Seth he knows something is up. The man in the large chair stands up and starts walking towards Seth.

The man is close to a foot taller than Seth and his hear is reminiscent to a flame both in color and style. He is wearing a long sleeve blackshirt with yellow gloves on both hands, "My boy and those red losers say you are the one who's been causing so much trouble."

Seth smiles, "I just don't take kindly to kidnapping and mass murder, if you'd stop then I would too. Just as soon as I find that guy with long black hair."

"Too bad, your little journey to find him is now over, don't worry I'll bury your body some place nice."


	12. Chapter 12

Left Arm of God Vs Boss Yellow

Seth removes his sleeve and stuffs it into his pocket, "So since you know everything about me and I know nothing about you how about you tell me your name."

The man smiles at Seth's casualness, "My name is Tayo."

"Tayo huh, that is a pretty strange name, I almost think you are are lying to me, but I haven't been here that long so maybe you are telling the truth."

Tayo takes off his long sleeve shirt revealing a well toned upper body. He smirks at Seth who in comparison has a slightly less tone, "Perhaps you would feel better if I kill you quickly."

Seth cracks his knuckles, "If you killed me quickly than you won't have any fun."

Tayo nods and looks past Seth to Rain who has had her hood down the whole while, "She is a bute, when you die I'll take good care of her."

Seth stops smiling and becomes much more serious. Tayo makes a kiss sound towards Rain and Seth races towards him and slams his fist in Tayo's jaw sending him skidding a few feet away. Tayo gets up and licks the blood off his lower lip. Seth charges forward again this time Tayo blurs out of sight. Seth spins around trying to find him and does, only not soon enough as Tayo connects with a crossing right punch that nearly knocks Seth to his knees. Tayo lifts his left knee connecting with the side of Seth's face and then slams his fist into Seth's gut. Seth stumbles backwards holding his abdomen. Tayo disappears again only to still be right in front of Seth catching him by surprise with a strong round house kick. Seth spirals down to the ground. He quickly scrambles to his feet and attempts to connect with a straight right punch, but Tayo side steps and uses Seth's momentum to flip him over onto his back. This time Seth kicks his legs up and kicks Tayo in the forehead making him very mad. Tayo does a front flip over Seth's head and drives his feet down onto Seth's diaphragm. Seth quickly rolls away from Tayo as he fumes over the sudden kick he received.

"I though you were a strong fighter.....I guess the red team and that short fat bastard were all weaklings after all, no wonder....." Tayo walks back over to the table where the remaining red gang members are and quickly and efficiently kills him with a knife on the table.

Rain quickly runs over to Seth and checks on him, "Seth he is really strong we should run."

"No I'm not gonna run we have finally found a lead, I'm gonna do my best." Rain watches practically stunned as Seth sits up and then rises to his feet. "I think I am starting to figure this guy out."

Tayo looks back at Seth with an amused grin, "Maybe this could still be interesting."

Seth points at Tayo, "IGNIS!"

A straight beam of fire flies towards Tayo who at first is surprised by Seth's abilities. Tayo jumps into the air and the fire flies under him and slams into the wall behind him. Seth notes that the wall didn't catch fire which means that it must be made of brick in the basement. Tayo charges at Seth with a speed that might rival Airo's. Tayo uses his fading trick but this time Seth jumps up into the air. While in the air Seth spots Tayo as he is reappearing and fires another fire ball at him. This one nearly connects the heat of the flame obviously bothering Tayo at least a little. Seth lands on the ground and slams his fist into Tayo's shoulder making him expose his left side. Seth goes to kick him the side but Tayo does a spiraling flip and connects with a kick to the side of Seth's head just a brief second before landing on the ground. Seth quickly recovers and hits Tayo with a spinning backhand and follows up the attack with a spinning jump kick to the side of his head. Tayo stumbles backwards and looks at Seth with a strange mixture of rage and happiness.

Tayo puts his hand together in front of his chest and a strange light begins to emanate around his wrists. "I think you deserve to not be lied to any longer, I haven't been really fighting with you, more like a, serious sparring match." Seth doesn't like the way this sounds and finds the strange light around Tayo's wrists to be even worse. Tayo lifts his hands over his head and quickly brings them down separating them. The light shatters like glass and a strange wind blows inside of the windowless basement.

Tayo runs at Seth now with an even greater amount of speed and slams both of his fists into Seth hitting his gut and his chest at the same time launching him half way cross the room. Seth manages to keep his feet even though the impact has sent him such a great distance. Before Seth can recover Tayo is already beside him and slams his foot into the side of Seth's leg the impact causing so much pain that Seth's leg buckles from under him. Tayo does a backflip to create some distance and then slams his feet into Seth's chest sending him crashing do into the floor and across the rest of the room. Seth slowly gets back to his feet using the wall to help him. Tayo this time is just standing where he was before. Seth swipes his hand from left to right while using the fire gauntlets hoping to hit Tayo. Instead trying to dodge Tayo runs through the flames so quickly that anything that caught fire instantly went out.

Seth looks over at Rain and then back to Tayo and realizes that this whole time his runes have not been working for him at all. Tayo starts charging at him again this time Seth starts to panic wishing that his runes would just activate if only to null the pain of the impending strike only a little.

"COME ON!!!!!!!!"

Seth's runes suddenly light up and he slams his fist into the side of Tayo's face launching him all the way across the room and through the banquet table. Seth is left dumb struck as the pain slowly starts to numb and he catches his breath again. Tayo in a fit of rage breaks the remaining parts of the table into smaller pieces. Tayo charges again at Seth using his fading technique but this time Seth can somehow follow the move and as Tayo brings up his foot to strick him Seth slams his fist into Tayo's knee effectively blocking and injuring him at the same time. Seth starts a barrage of punches all over Tayo's upper body until he takes a step back and a slams his fist into Tayo's face launching him across the room again and this time into the wall with such velocity that he leaves an imprint of his body in the wall. Seth charges at Tayo this time and is about to strike him when Tayo shouts his surrender.

"Wait, wait I give up, your runes seem to make you a lot stronger than my energy release." Tayo smiles through his swelling face.

Seth doesn't think that Tayo would try anything especially with his almost broken left knee, "I want you to tell me where the guys who burned down Strine Village are."

Tayo reaches into his pocket and pulls out what looks like a compass, "Here, seems you deserve what your are after. I can't tell you who is the one who burned down your village but I can only lead you to the next in command over me."

"Next in command, you mean that there are even more of you?"

Tayo spits out some blood, "Yeah, as far as I know there are four more groups that hold command over my group. The way it works is that the group only really knows about the group above and below them. I know about those loser reds and unless they changed it the next group are the blues. I don't know much about them though, their leader is a secretive guy."

Seth takes the compass and looks at it, "So I just follow this compass, it will lead me to the blues?"

"It is a kind of tracker magic so that leaders, if needed, could find the other leaders."

"So why are you giving this to me?"

Tayo smiles again, "Now the remaining reds and the blues, depending on what you do to them will not be coming here looking for me. Like I said before when I fought you I could feel that you deserve to get what you are looking for."

Seth puts the compass away, "Thank you Tayo, it's too bad we had to meet this way. You seem like a pretty alright guy compared to the red boss."

Seth gets up and starts walking away, "Hey kid, "Not all of the bosses are like me, they won't fight to enjoy the fight, they will want to kill you."

"So does that mean you didn't want to kill me."

Tayo laughs while wincing, "I lost my cool a little when you kicked me in the face, but I don't like killing good fighters."

Seth nods and walks over to Rain. The two of them leave the basement and leave the the building.

Rain looks at the compass, "So you think we can trust him?"

Seth nods, "Yeah, I think we can, he seemed like a good guy." Seth takes a step and a painful zap runs up his leg, "Maybe Zion could help me out before we leave this town."


	13. Chapter 13

Gaining Reputation

Seth and Rain leave the town with no further trouble from the yellow gang or the red gang heading in the direction that the compass points them.

Rain notices that Seth is limping a little but she doesn't want to bring it up as he looks a little bit distraught this morning. They quietly walk side by side for a couple of hours before anything happens to break the silence. Seth stumbles forward and falls flat on his face. Rain quickly kneels down beside him and helps him roll over onto his back. Seth's face is pale and he seems to be drained.

"Seth are you okay, you've been limping ever since yesterday and you are breathing kinda heavily."

Seth takes a few breathes in through his mouth and then with a painful grunt gets back to his feet, "I am just sore, and tired...." Seth can't even open his eyes all the way, "I think I might have done something against Tayo I shouldn't have."

Rain doesn't understand what he means, "Did you get injured or something." Rain leads him over to a tree and helps him down to the ground, "You should rest for a bit before we head out." Rain puts a finger to his lips as he is about to voice his protest, "We have the compass we don't need to be in such a hurry that my familiar dies from exhaustion." Before Seth can even nod his literally passes out and falls over from his seated position. The impact with the ground doesn't even disturb his sleep. Rain lifts his head and she sits down against the tree, allowing his head to rest on her lap. A warm day with a gental breeze, a beautiful day especially for a nap under a tree. Rain can't deny her own logic and she closes her eyes.

* * *

"Okay now her."

Rain's eyes snap open just as they are surrounded by armored soldiers. Rain looks down and finds that Seth isn't there. She quickly stands up and reaches for her wand, but her hand is caught by a nearby soldier.

"We would like to avoid any violence, Miss Strine."

Rain doesn't struggle knowing that without her wand she can cast any magic and Seth is gone. The soldier that has her hand releases it and then removes his helmut, blue eyes and blonde hair, he looks extremely familiar.

"My name is Kai Tutor, we are soldiers of Albion, we'd like your help."

"Where, is, Seth?"

Kai hands his helmut to one of the soldiers beside him, "He is fine I've had him taken to our camp, is he in a coma?"

Rain almost smiles at the question, "He didn't wake up?"

Kai shakes his head, "We tried to wake the both of you...."

"Please just take me to my familiar."

Kai seems displeased with the situation, "I'm sorry, I am just following orders of my step brother Wales the Prince of Albion."

That is where she has seen this guy before. He looks like a younger version of the Albion Prince. "If the Prince wants our help why did he not come himself?"

Kai moves a loose strand of hair from his face, "My step brother is extremely busy, there is much worry of a civil war in Albion and he can't simply leave the country to ask for help. That is my lot in life."

Rain notices something wrong with his introduction, "Wales' name isn't Tutor its Tudor, who are you really?"

Kai sighs, "Please I can explain it on the way, I'm sure if your familiar wakes up without you being around he will be most displeased."

Rain agrees with that, if anything she has noticed that Seth has become very protective of her and would more that likely destroy however big a camp that his in at the moment. Rain follows behind Kai and the rest of the soldiers follow behind them both.

"So are you going to explain the name now that we are on our way?"

Kai looks down at the ground but continues to walk, "I have always spelled my last name differently out of a sort of, punishment."

"Punishment?"

Kai smiles though Rain can't see it, "Yes, my father and Wales' father are the same man and neither of us really knew he was a man of such moral proportions. I didn't know who he was until I met Wales for the first time, we look like we could be twins if it wasn't for his being older than me. Father doesn't know that I am with Wales and we'd both like it to stay that way. My mother is dead as is Prince Wales' so we are very simular in many ways. Only the men in our group know that he is my brother and now you do as well, as a sigh of good faith."

She puts her hands together and looks at the ground trying to take in the enormity of the news. The King of Albion having an affair and by the look of Kai it had to have been well before the late Queen passed away, "So that doesn't explain the punishment, what harm could spelling it the same do?"

Kai looks at her from over his shoulder, "I am only half, so why have the full name? Wales is the son of the King and Queen, the crowned Prince and rightful heir to the thrown."

"But when he takes the thrown he could reveal you as a possible successor."

"No it would shame our whole family and if we didn't explain my origens than it could clause civil unrest. My name is different because I am different, son of a King and a commoner."

She doesn't answer back and likewise doesn't receive anymore information on the subject for the rest of the trip.

_'He must not like to talk about it, but he had to introduce himself that way, he was right I would have been much less respondent to someone who is not a high ranking noble or at the least working for one'_

A few minutes later Kai leads the group off the trail and into the forest. Only a little ways inside of the forest are a bunch of tents all built into a circular pattern leaving an open around in the very middle of the camp. Kai points at one of the tents and Rain goes inside. Seth is still asleep laying down on the ground with his pack substituting for Rain's lap. She walks over to him and sits down next to him, a strange feeling of relief coming over her. Kai opens the tent and sits down on the opposite end as Rain and Seth.

"I told you he didn't wake up, he is a rather lazy person isn't he?"

Rain isn't sure if Kai is joking or not, "No, he isn't lazy, he has been very tired and hurt for a while and I decided to let him sleep today so that he'd be back to normal."

He seems less than sure about what Rain has said, "Well regardless I guess it would be better if you read this and made the decision anyhow, since you are his master."

Kai hands her an envelope and then walks out of the tent. Rain opens the envelop and pulls out the letter,

_Hello, if you are reading this than Kai has successfully found you. I hope you can understand that with a possible civil war in Albion I couldn't ask you for help in person. If I could possibly ask you to do this one task for me I would be in your debt and would be able to repay you in anyway you feel necessary. I need you to take a second letter that I have entrusted to Kai to the princess of Tristain, Henrietta. I realize that this may seem like a menial task but inside of the second letter is vital information to the future of both Tristain and Albion. My intelligence network has told me that your group has begun to gain a reputation for stopping evil men and I hope that you take this request to heart. I cannot sent the entire group all the way to the Tristain castle as I feel the war will be coming soon. I sent Kai out of fear and trust, I wouldn't want anything to happen to my dear brother. Please look after him during your travel._

_ Prince Wales Tudor _

"This seems like a pretty easy task, all we have to do is deliver a letter to the Princess. How did he know about what we've been doing?" Rain looks back at Seth who has recently turned over onto his belly, still fast asleep, "You are going to have to wake up soon." Rain gets up and leaves the tent. When she exits Kai is sitting outside of the tent waiting, "We will help you."

Kai stands up and bows, "Thank you Miss Strine, I'm sorry that my brother has caused so much trouble."

Rain turns back to the tent, "He is just worried about you, and we are more than happy to help the Royal Family of our country's allies."

"Not the Royal Family, just Wales, father doesn't know about this."

Rain enters the tent and lays down with her back to Seth's side, "I hope this will be alright."


	14. Chapter 14

Kai

The next day sometime after noon Seth finally wakes up. He sits up quickly and starts to frantically look around, "Rain? Rain....." He quickly gets to his feet and pulls on his gauntlets. He slowly opens the flap to the tent and peeks outside, around ten men in armor are stationed in random places all around the small camp, "What happened, why didn't I wake up?" He sprints around the back of a tent near a soldier while remaining unnoticed. Seth jumps onto the back of the man and wraps his legs around the soldiers waist. He quickly knocks off the helmut and begins to choke the man. As soon as the man passes out Seth lets go and drags the man into a nearby tent.

While tying up the guard Seth faintly hears Rain's voice. He runs out of the tent and bumps into a man with blonde hair not wearing a helmut. They both fall to the ground but quickly get back to their feet. Seth having not been awake to meet him has no idea that he is about to attack Kai, who he has already been commissioned to help.

Seeing this Kai draws his sword. Seth swings at him but the strike is blocked by the swords handle. Kai flips over Seth even in armor and tries to capture his wrist to pin him to the ground, but Seth rolls forward creating some space between the two of them. Kai lunges forward swiping quickly with his sword, every attack misses. Seth doesn't understand why Kai purposely missed but he doesn't wait and slams his left fist into Kai's gut lifting him off his feet. Seth continues to pummel Kai a little higher into the air with every strike before doing a back flip and connecting with a kick. The strike sends Kai flipping head over heels uncontrollably until he crashes to the ground. Kai gets back to his feet and brings his blade up so that it is just a few inches from his face. He places the blade between his middle and pointer finger and runs them across the full length of the blade. As he reaches the tip he whips the sword down to the side and it starts shooting sparks and bolts of electricity.

Seth watches in awe as Kai takes the lighting blade in both his hands and raises the sword above his head. He quickly realizes that he shouldn't be marveling and prepares for whatever may come. Kai swings the sword towards Seth and all the electricity flies from the blade in a snaking line of lightning. Seth quickly putts both his hands out in front of his body and blasts fire from both hands in an attempt to subdue the lighting blast. Sparks and embers fly in all directions creating a visually stunning display of reds, yellows, and blues. Suddenly a wall of earth rises up and comes between the two blasts. The ground nullifies both attacks and they quickly die out.

Seth looks over and Rain is standing off to the side of the battle her face red, with, rage. She quickly walks over and hits Seth in the back of the head, "You idiot what are you doing?!"

"What are you talking about? I thought we had been captured, we weren't captured?" Seth honestly doesn't understand what is going on, "And if we weren't captured why did this guy over here not try to tell me?"

Rain looks at Kai who is putting his sword back in the scarab at his hip, "You didn't even try to explain?"

Kai looks at Rain and then back at Seth, "This commoner wouldn't have listened, he knocked out one of the guards."

Seth points at Kai, "Well what would you do if you woke up in some strange place all alone!?"

Kai sighs and runs a hand through his hair, "I would gage the situation properly and wouldn't resort to violence so quickly."

Seth takes off his gauntlets, "It's easy to say that now, I'd like to see how you'd really handel it."

Rain takes Seth's hands and looks up at him, "Calm down, I'm okay, see? You are starting to act like a dog, I am a triangle class mage, I can take care of myself too you know?"

Seth looks at the ground, "Yeah, but....."

"So now that you are awake, perhaps we can start our journey." Kai removes the rest of his armor revealing a very simple brown shirt and black pants, making him look like a commoner, besides the Albian Knight scarab and sword, "I would like to have this mission done as quickly as possible so I can go back to Wales."

Rain nods and takes Seth back to the tent explaining what they have to do.

"But Rain I don't get it, why would the prince of another country ask us to help. Does he expect something to happen to Kai along the way?"

Rain picks up Seth backpack and hands it to him, "I don't know, the letter must be important, so maybe he just doesn't want someone to ambush Kai and take the letter." Rain can tell that Seth doesn't like Kai though she finds it understandable after he attacked him without trying to explain.

"I don't know Rain I just don't like him, the way he looks at me just pisses me off."

Rain smiles while he back is still turned to him, "Yes well he is a noble Seth, he may look at you like that because you are a familiar or because you are a commoner. Either way I think he doesn't like you about as much as you don't like him." Rain turns around and Seth is looking at his left arm, "What's the matter?"

Seth runs his hand across the runes on his biscep, "Do you think I'll fall asleep like that after I use this again?"

Rain doesn't see where he is going with the question, "Seth, I don't know, why is there something wrong?"

Seth pulls on a black sleeve he got from Gen, "When I woke up and you where gone, I......."

Rain gives Seth a hug, "There feel better?"

He almost starts laughing at how childish she can sometimes be, "Yea, but that doesn't really take care of the problem I'm having."

Rain steps back, "I know, Seth you need to listen because I already said this once, I am a triangle class mage, that means I can control three different elements of magic. If you need to rest then I can protect you, I'm not just some helpless noble like some."

Seth nods and they both walk out of the tent. Kai meets up with them at the edge of the camp and they continue on towards the Tristain Royal Palace.


	15. Chapter 15

The Castle

The trip takes less time than originally expects more than likely because Seth can't stand Kai and the feeling is very much shared in return. The whole trip Kai never said anything more about his Father, the Albion King, or Prince Wales. At first it seemed very odd, but after a while Seth and Rain begin to understand that he can't just talk about it so openly. If a someone untrusted heard and the news spread than the Kingdom of Albion would be shamed.

Much like Kai, Seth didn't talk very much either. After the second day of traveling Rain begins to notice that while in terms of outward appearance and social position Kai and Seth are the exact opposite, but on the inside they are very simular. Maybe that is the reason neither of them likes the other. Though she doesn't particularly like Kai, she reaches a general understanding of his problems.

* * *

The group reaches the gates of the palace and are stopped by a guard with a long wand with a sword handle, "Halt what business do you have here?"

Kai steps forward and kneels down to one knee, "Prince Wales of Albion has sent us three to deliver a message to Princess Henrietta of Tristain."

The soldier doesn't seem very impressed with the group of commoners standing in front of him, "Do you have some proof?"

Kai stays on his knee and removes his scarab and puts the note on it, "Sir, I am a knight of the Albion army in disguise, if you need proof please just take this sword and this note to your Princess."

The soldier snaps his fingers and a servant from inside the gate runs over to Kai and takes the things from him.

"Take these to a magic tester."

Kai stands up, "But only the Princess is to see that note!"

"I will not take your word on such a matter, you could have easily stolen an Albion sword and set some kind of magic booby trap." The soldier steps forward standing easily two feet above Kai's head, "Now will there be anymore problems?"

Kai doesn't back down, instead he looks up at the soldier, "Only the Princess is to see that note...."

"What is going on here!" The knight suddenly stands at attention and doesn't make the slightest movement or sound, A man wearing a blue suit of armor and a large hat walks out from behind the inner wall of the gate.

This time Rain bows down and she tugs on Seth's pant leg and forces him to a knee as well, "Rain what is it?"

"That is Ward, the leader of Tristain's Dragon Knights, he is a very high ranking soldier and noble." Rain doesn't look up at the man while she is explaining.

Ward walks over to the servant and takes the note and the sword, "You there you say you are an Albion soldier, why are you in commoner clothing?"

Kai stops glaring at the guard, "I am in commoner clothing because this is supposed to be a secret mission, but you damn guard is extremely incompetent, thinking an Albion soldier sword could be easily stolen."

Ward looks at the sword and then tosses it back at Kai, "You three come with me." Ward turns and starts walking towards the castle. The three quickly catch up and follow behind him.

Seth finds the situation a little to, convenient, "So why are you letting us in?"

Ward rests his hand on the handle of his wand sword, "If you try something you will die."

_'Wow this guy is really confident in his abilities.......I can actually feel the air around him is thick with magic, he probably could kill Kai, me, and Rain with little trouble....'_

Ward leads the three through a few halls until they reach two large doors. Ward knocks on the door and then slowly opens one and leads them in.

Ward bows and the other three do as well, "Princess Henrietta a soldier from Albion has come with a message for you." Ward puts the letter on a table in front of him.

The princess turns around and looks at the three people that Ward has brought in, "Thank you Ward would you please wait outside?" Ward bows again and leaves the room closing the door behind him. "You have a message from Prince Wales?"

Kai stands up, "Yes Princess, I don't know the details inside of the message, but I am in a hurry to go back to the Prince."

Henrietta smiles, "Please you all can stand," Seth and Rain stand up while Henrietta takes the letter and opens it. After a few minutes Henrietta finishes the letter nods, "Kai you don't need to worry about the message, your brother wrote about you in the note a little. There isn't anything wrong, he says that they have moved to the church and that you'd know where that is."

Kai nods, "Yes, the church is a specific building in the forest of Albion, at one time it was in a clearing, but trees started growing around it covering an old abandoned church."

Henrietta puts the note inside of a desk on the far side of the room, "It is good that you know where it is since you are in such a hurry, I'm sure your brother misses you too." The sentiment seems to embarrass Kai a little, "Kai who are the other two with you?"

Kai turns to Rain and Seth, "This is Rain Strine a noble of Tristain and her commoner familiar, Seth." Seth becomes instantly irritated with Kai's introduction but he doesn't say anything for the sake of the Princess and Rain, "They have gained a reputation as strong warriors."

The princess smiles at Seth and Rain, "It is a pleasure to meet you all. Is there anyway that I can help you as thanks?"

Rain takes Seth's hand and pulls him over towards the wall while Kai talks to the princess, "What should we do, we could ask her for help with the blue gang or money or something else?"

Seth shrugs, "you can ask for whatever you believe we need, but I know that I'm going to need to be stronger for the next fight, that Wade guy could kill me without breaking a sweat, I'm going to ask her for a better pair of gauntlets."

Rain rolls her eyes, "Why do you need a better pair?"

"What if I can't win? If Tayo would've turned out to be a cold blooded killer there is a good chance that I'd be dead, and you, well I don't want to think about it. We have the compass and when we beat the next guy we will take his compass too. We don't need to bother the Royal Family with this." Seth looks at the ground, "I.....don't want to...ugh," Seth looks right into Rain's eyes, "Don't you get it yet?" Rain gives him a strange look and Seth just sighs and walks over to the princess. "Princess Henrietta, if it is possible, I would love you use your favor to possibly get a more powerful pair of magic gauntlets."

Henrietta nods and writes down something on a piece of paper and hands it to Seth, "Give this to Ward and he will help you."

Seth bows, "Thank you Princess."

Without saying anything to Rain, Seth walks out of the room. Just outside of the door Ward is leaning against the wall. Seth hands him the piece of paper and Wade nods his head so that Seth follows him.

Half way down the hall Ward looks over his should at Seth, "So have you told her yet?"

He looks up at the older knight, "Told who what?"

Wade looks back down the hall, "That girl, have you told her how you feel."

Seth feel very uncomfortable with this conversation he is having with this stranger, but for some reason his mouth just goes on it's own, "No, but I've tried. She doesn't seem to be understanding what I am saying to her."

Ward stops at a door and turns back to him, "Wait here." Ward goes in a few minutes later comes out with silver gauntlets with a star embedded in the center of the hand on both gloves.

"What does the star mean?"

Ward hands Seth the gauntlets, "It is how many elements it can use in this case these gauntlets can use fire, water, wind, ground, and lightning magic."

Seth pulls on the new gauntlets and they actually shrink so that they fit his hands perfectly, "Thank you Ward." Seth turns and starts walking towards the exit.

"You may have to try something drastic..." Seth turns back, but Ward is already far away in the opposite direction.

"Drastic?"

After waiting outside of the actual castle, still within the walls, Seth spots Rain coming out.

_'Drastic, drastic, okay here we go'_

Seth walks over to her with purpose but just as he is about to take her hand a messenger on a horse comes riding up and the horse bucks nearly striking Seth but he still falls over. As he falls he quickly spins so that he can catch himself but it is too late.

Rain cringes as Seth slams head first into the hard stone walk way of the castle, "Seth are you okay?"

Seth looks up a dazed look and a small cut in his forehead, "Rain, I."

She puts her hand up to his cheek, and starts laughing at him. Seth crosses his arms and rests his head back on the ground, "Drastic....."


	16. Chapter 16

Message from Mrs. Blue

After his little accident with a royal messenger Seth decided for the group that they would stay at an inn before leaving for their separate destinations, Kai's being Albion, Rain's and Seth's the blue gang.

Seth sneaks out of Rain's and his room and out of the inn. Kai is already outside, waiting for him, "Kai, I didn't even hear you leave your room."

"I could hear your breathing as you where coming down the steps to the first floor." Kai stands up and walks away. Seth rolls his eyes and follows after him. They reach a partially open area a couple of miles from the inn and Kai turns back to Seth, "Should I kill you I will make sure Rain is taken care off."

Seth pulls on his new gauntlets and smiles as they shrink to his size, "The last person that mentioned Rain before we fought, I beat him pretty bad."

Kai draws his sword and it suddenly grows into a broad sword, "I am not some gang boss, I am a soldier."

Seth keeps his distance from Kai as he has just seen a sword grow not only in length but in width. Kai charges ahead and swings horizontally but Seth hops backwards dodging the tip of the broad sword. The sword turns into a much smaller short sword and Kai suddenly thrusts forward and Seth has to block the blade with his gauntlets not liking how close the short sword got to his face. Seth quickly pushes Kai away from him and connects with a left cross that turns Kai. Seth jumps and drop kicks Kai in the back and he falls down to the ground.

Seth lands on his feet and makes a mocking face at Kai who is still on the ground. Kai grabs his blade and points it at Seth and the blade quickly becomes an extremely long slender blade. Seth covers his face with his right hand and the tip of the blade slams into his palm and pushes Seth backwards until the blade stops growing. As the blade retracts Seth charges forward and quickly gets ahead of the shrinking blade not allowing Kai to swing and Seth connects with a strong uppercut. Kai is lifted into the air and comes back down on his feet looking no worse than he did before.

Kai smiles and then suddenly disappears from Seth's sight. Kai suddenly reappears and Seth calls to his knees a cut suddenly starts bleeding from his thigh. Kai stops and puts his palm out. A blast of wind slams into Seth and lifts him into the air. Seth falls into a tree and hits a bunch of branches before landing awkwardly on his side driving the wind from his lungs. Kai walks over to Seth and crosses the blunt side of his sword across Seth's throat.

"Commoner, you won't be able to beat me, I am a soldier of legend." Seth doesn't understand what Kai is talking about but he figures that speaking might not be the best idea since there is a sword at his throat. Kai removes his blade and puts it back in the scarab.

A loud sound rings through the air and Kai's scarab and blade are knocked off his belt. Seth starts to stand up but the sound rings again and something hits Seth's gauntlet causing a spark. A figure well hidden by his blue and black outfit walks into the moon light.

"I have a message from Mrs. Blue for you. She says that she is waiting for you to come and amuse her and remember, the compass works both ways." The person steps out of the light and practically disappears.

Kai picks up his scarab and there is a chunk of metal stuck in it, "What is this?"

Seth stands up and looks at the scarab, "It's a bullet!?"

Kai yanks the bullet out of his scarab, "What is a bullet?"

Seth takes it form Kai's hand, "It is ammunition for a gun." Kai clearly doesn't understand what Seth is talking about, "A gun is a weapon that fires these faster than any arrow and these can cause a lot of damage."

Kai scoffs, "What kind of message was that?"

Seth puts the bullet in his pocket and leaves towards the inn.

* * *

Seth sneaks into the room but is extremely surprised to see that Rain is sitting up in her bed waiting, "Where have you been?"

Seth walks towards his bed and sits down, "Me and Kai had to settle some things."

"You fought him?"

"Yeah......"

Rain sighs, "I knew that this was going to happen, are you okay?" Seth pulls down his pants and Rain turns her head, "What are you doing!?"

Seth goes into his pack and pulls out some wrap he got, "He cut my thigh, if it is all the same to you I'd rather not bleed to death."

Rain turns back around, Seth's leg is bleeding and doesn't look like it will stop anytime soon, "Seth, do you need a doctor?"

Seth shakes his head, "If I've lived through fire magic, lighting swords, I don't think I'd need to see a doctor from something so normal as a cut." Seth's usual odd look at life in this world continues to confuse and amaze Rain at the same time, "Hey, uh Rain, I'm sorry...."

"Sorry, for what?"

Seth looks up from what he's doing, "Yeah, I kinda yelled at you yesterday, I'm sorry." Seth finishes wrapping his leg and lays back on his bed, "Good night."

Rain lays back down, "Seth?"

"Hm?"

"Thanks."


	17. Chapter 17

Debt

Seth and Kai don't tell Rain about the message that was left from the apparent leader of the blue gang instead they only admit to the fight in the forest both agreeing that it was a tie. After a few days of traveling they reach the place that Rain and Seth were when they were kidnapped by Kai and the Albion soldiers.

Kai bows slightly, "I am sure that Wales has given you agreeable compensation in his letter before taking the mission?" Kai turns and starts to walk away but Seth runs in front of him and stops him, "What do you want?"

Seth smirks, "You know Rain there is a really good chance that we will never meet Wales, I mean, he is a Prince and all." Rain agrees but doesn't see where Seth is going, "Since we will never meet him to collect our award I am sure that Wales would gladly let us barrow one of his soldiers." Now Rain sees where he is going, "So under that belief Kai, I want you to repay your brothers debt by helping us take down the blue gang. After that we will call all debts fulfilled and you can do whatever you want."

Kai grits his teeth and clenches his fists tight together, "If that, is your wish, then as a soldier of Albion I would be, honored to repay the Prince's debt." Kai opens his hands and takes a deep breath.

"Was it really that hard for you to say?"

"To you?"

Seth just shakes his head and walks back over to Rain, "Okay Rain time to use the compass." rain pulls out the compass and it points in the direction they are already heading, "Well I guess that's a good thing, no need to do any back tracking." He thinks about what the messenger said, "Rain, remember, since we have that compass, the blue gang and the red gang will be able to find us."

"I know, I'm not stupid I was listening when Tayo explained it." Rain smiles at a moderately deflated Seth, "Come on let's go." Kai and Seth follow Rain as she gets a little head start on the familiar and the soldier of Albion. Rain spins around, "And now that you two are fighting for me, no more fighting." Seth feels even more deflated while Kai just scoffs, "Good so we have an understanding."

* * *

The group reaches a fortress like building, the compass is pointing right into it.

Seth looks at the compass from over Rain's shoulder, "Think this is the place." She nods and puts the compass away, "Well let's do it then, we'll see how great this blue gang is."

With Kai's help Seth opens the large metal door. The whole area is empty except a staircase leading down.

Kai looks down at the hole and then looks around the football sized open area, "Seems like a pretty obvious trap." Seth pulls on his gauntlets and drops his pack in a bush so that he doesn't have to carry it through the area below the ground. Rain pulls out her wand and makes a small fire levitate around the tip. The three slowly make their way down the steps. As they reach the last step the whole hallway lights up automatically like motion sensor lights only, they are still torches. Rain puts out the fire on her wand and hides it back in her sleeve and follows from the back of the group. Kai pulls out his sword and it takes the form of a long dagger with a bladed, brass knuckle style handle.

As they continue forward Seth begins to notice that this place is exactly like Tayo's building on with apparently more technological advances, more than likely through the use of magic. Just like with Tayo's building the hall opens into a very large open room except on one end instead of a bunch of slobs and a picnic table, there are hundreds of vials and beakers filled with random colored liquids.

A square of the ceiling lowers down and five people are on it. Four are wearing long white coats and one, a woman with dark indigo hair, wearing a blue hair tie. The four are talking to the woman about something until one notices Seth, Kai, and Rain.

The woman looks up from whatever she was looking at, "Well finally, I have been waiting for you. The woman snaps her fingers and the four people in white pull out wands and point them at the floor. Suddenly the ground begins to grow an transform into random shapes and sizes. After a few minutes the ground finally stops moving and becomes something like what Seth would compare a paintball arena to look like. The four leave on the elevator like piece of ceiling leaving the woman and the group.

"Well, this is my arena, if you can guess I am into science, and one of the greatest marvels of science is the invention of the gun. I am very well informed so I know why you are here and I had my people already take care of it. Should you defeat me your prive is waiting with your pack."

Seth looks back at Rain, "Does she mean my pack, I left it outside, I hid it in a bush."

The woman begins to laugh, "You really don't get it yet, the compass is inside that pack, it isn't very hard to find when you can go to right where it is." She frowns when she notices that Kai is part of the group, "Who is this, I was told there was only two people."

Kai steps forward and his blade grows back to its' normal shape, "I am Kai Tutor, a knight of Albion, and who are you?"

"This simply will not do, I guess to make things fair." She suddenly whips up the hand that was resting at her side. In her hand is a pistol like gun and before anyone can move she fires one bullet. The piece of metal hits Seth right in the shoulder and passes out the other side. Seth falls to the ground rolling and groaning from the smoldering bullet wound in his shoulder. My name is Kleer echoes around the big open room.

Rain quickly tries to figure out how to help Seth but Seth pushes her away, "You need to run, that this is a gun and it could kill you from just about any distance." Rain tries to help him still but Seth shoves her back again, "Run, hide!"

Rain nods and runs off in the opposite direction and disappears behind a bunch of objects.

Seth crawls to a different location, "That was a pretty cheap move Kleer!"

"Three on one and I'm being accused of something?" A piece of the wall guarding Seth is broken away from a bullet shot right beside his head.

Kai takes his sword and shrinks it down to the size of a regular knife and begins to runs around the area tying to get behind Kleer. He climbs up into a tree like object and finds her searching for someone. He quickly jumps down and tackles her and she drops the gun. Kai charges at her and swings his blade, it grows beyond its normal length and size by the time his swing is done. Kleer leans backwards and the blade passes just over her body. As Kai is recoiling with his larger sword she kicks him in the gut and then lands a surprisingly powerful uppercut knocking him into the air. Kai crashes into the ground and quickly gets back to his feet, but the gun and Kleer are both gone. He quickly scrambles behind something and makes his sword into a broad sword in case she is in front of him.

Seth stands and stumbles behind another tree like object and looks at his shoulder, "I bullet passed right through....I think that is a good thing?"

Kleer drops down in front of him and puts the gun right up under his chin, "Looks like this is it for you."

Seth smirks, "Aqua!"

A condensed blast of water launches form his right hand and slams into Kleer's gut knocking her back into a cluster of odd looking things. Seth runs after her but when he gets to where she landed she is done. Seth turns around and Kleer is behind him. She slams the butt of the gun into his bullet wound and kicks him under his chin before he can scream out in pain. She spins and sweeps his legs and then jumps up into the air. She comes down on top of him with her knees on either side of his face, sitting on chest pinning him down.

"Don't get any ideas." She puts the gun to his forehead and pulls back on the hammer, "Bye bye."

A blast of wind knocks Kleer off of Seth and another current lifts her off the ground and slams her into the ceiling and through to whatever is above. Rain walks out from a hiding spot her face is beat red, "What was that?"

Seth can't explain himself just a simple shrug and a, "She had a gun to my head," comes out. Rain shakes her head and looks up at the hole in the ceiling, "Are we gonna follow her?"

Kai falls behind Rain from some above vantage point, "We should follow her before we lose her."

With another blast of wind the three are lifted up into a darker room. As their feet touch the ground Kleer jumps out from around the corner and fires a shot right at Rain.

_'SHIT!'_

The world slows as Rain hits the ground. Seth falls to his knees a shocked, pain-filled expression on his face. Seth falls forward and hits the floor with a simply thud. Rain quickly scrambles over to him, blood is beginning to pool under him.

She flips him over and rest his head in her lap as Kai leaps over them and chases after Kleer. "Why did you do that, you are already hurt." Rain's eyes begin to swell with tears. Seth slowly reaches up and wipes away a tear that had begun to roll down her cheek.

"Rain....."

She wraps her arms around him and holds him close, "Please don't die, please...Seth you can't die, I don't want to be alone."

Seth's hearing seems to be disappearing as Rain voice is sounding farther and father away. He isn't sure if it made any sound but at the very least he lipped the words, "I love you." As his eyes close he marvels at the irony of his current situation. In a world with magic, dragons, knights, in a world where the most devastating weapon is a sword, he has been shot, twice. He looks up and Rain is still saying something but he is tired, Seth closes his eyes, black............


	18. Chapter 18

Second Chances

Seth opens his eyes but something is wrong, Rain is gone, everyone is gone, everything is gone. "What happened.....Oh right." Seth looks around the big open space, nothing absolutely nothing. No trees, no streams, no buildings, just white. Seth looks at his shoulder and his chest, no bullet wounds, "Well that isn't right, though I guess I am dead huh." A tear runs down his cheek, "Dead.....Rain....." Seth screams into the nothingness and white, "WHAT WAS THE POINT IF I AM DEAD!!!!!??????" He roughly wipes his face with his hand and sits down on the apparent ground though there is no physical evidence of any. The word keeps running through his head, "dead," it just doesn't seem fare. He begins to deny it, "I'm not dead, I got shot it doesn't mean that I died, people get shot all the time, they don't all die, right....right.....RIGHT!??" He gets back up and reaches for his gauntlets, but they are gone. He looks at his clothing a loose white shirt and white pants, "How typical I guess all those TV stereotypes were right after all huh, no wings though....." He rolls up his sleeve and looks at his runes, they are slowly fading. He slowly rolls the sleeve back down, "Dead...ha....haha....hahahahahaha, I cam't believe this." Seth falls to his knees and clutches at his head and lowers himself to the ground, "No......please..." A wave of exhaustion consumes him and he slowly closes his eyes and falls to sleep.

"Seth?"

His eyes open quickly and he gets to his feet, "Hello!?" He runs around the whiteness, "Is someone there?" He looks at his hands, "Am I being punished, am I going insane?" He runs both his hands through his hair, "Someone...." He falls back onto his but and hangs his head, "Anyone......."

"Seth!?"

"RAIN!!!!????" Seth stands back up but his legs suddenly give out and he falls backwards and hits his head on the transparent white ground knocking himself out.

* * *

The dark room is barely lit by the setting sun and small candle lit by the window. Rain sits right next to Seth's bed holding his hand against her face, for the last ten or so hours. She looks up at the sound of someone walking into the room.

Kai walks past her and sits in a chair for a moment before getting back up and walking to the door, "Rain, I'm sorry but I really have to go back to Albion, I have begun to fear for my brother's life."

Rain doesn't more just a simple sound leaves her lips and Kai reluctantly leaves the room. Rain runs a hand down Seth's cold cheek and then moves some hair from his face, "Seth........"

She lays down leaving his hand on her face and begins to cry. Seth slowly opens his eyes but doesn't make an sound. He still believes himself to be dead and now he is just being messed with by some higher power. Seth tries to sit up but pain rushes all over his body from his shoulder and chest. The jerk scares Rain so bad that when she stands up her chair is flipped backwards.

Before Seth can make another sound or move Rain wraps her arms around his neck and holds his head to her chest, all she can say is his name. When she finally stops he looks at her through weak eyes, "Rain?"

She smiles as tears are streaming down her face, "Yeah..." He reaches up and wipes away what tears he can. She breaks down again and just cries into his gut. Seth doesn't say anything he just lets her cry.


End file.
